Linda Reynolds's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Valedictory | Parliamentary Representation | Senate debates
Thank you for everything you've done for me.
Later! I know, and many of you here tonight know, that it has not always been easy being my friend, either. I'm so deeply grateful that year after year you have kept showing up to support me and...
Later! I know, and many of you here tonight know, that it has not always been easy being my friend, either. I'm so deeply grateful that year after year you have kept showing up to support me and be my friend. My staff are simply spectacular, but I'll have much more to say about you a bit later on. My journey into the Senate was not a particularly smooth one. In 2012, after long and successful careers in both the Army and the Liberal Party, I was deeply honoured to be preselected by the WA Liberal Party as a Senate candidate. Service defines who I am and what I do, and it always will. In my early 20s, I found my philosophical and ideological roots in the Liberal Party, as well as lifelong friends, many of whom are in the chamber here and also in the gallery this evening. I am a Menzies Liberal. I draw on both philosophical traditions of our great party. I'm as comfortable with supporting same-sex marriage as I am with boat turn-backs and rearming our nation in preparation for war. I've never been a member of a party faction. I understand them, but I find them distracting and often destructive. I left the Army as the adjutant general, the senior governance adviser with responsibility for reforming the Army's compliance and assurance processes to ensure capability and the safety of our people. So, after 35 years of military and political service, I felt very well prepared to serve my state and my country in the Senate, but it almost was not to be. After the great excitement of being elected in 2013, the election was voided by the High Court, as the AEC had lost the princely sum of 1,375 ballot papers, and Senator Cash remembers that well. As third on our Senate ticket, I almost lost in the 2014 Senate election rerun. I was then referred to in the media as 'one of the unluckiest people in Australian politics'. I've got to say, after the experience of the past four years, one could be forgiven for thinking that maybe they were right, but nothing—nothing—could be further from the truth. Being elected to serve in the Senate is such a rare privilege—a privilege that comes with great responsibilities but also great opportunities to do wonderful things for our nation. I've never lost sight of that—not once, not ever. Since Federation, I'm the 569th of only 648 Australians who have served in this place. I'm the 87th of 125 women, the 90th Western Australian and the fifth Liberal woman from Western Australia to have served in the Senate. At the last election in 2019, I had the great privilege of leading the WA party's Senate ticket. In my first speech—at that bookend—I focused on the themes of democracy, of leadership, of change and of gender. They were all causes that I have consistently and passionately pursued in this place both as a senator and as a minister. In that first speech, I also reflected on the values that underpinned my approach to life and to work, the dominant value being respect, which I learnt from my parents very early in life: self-respect, respect for others, and respectful compassion and support for those who genuinely need it, but also respectful but tough actions against those who ruthlessly exploit the compassion and the vulnerability of others and against those who seek to do us harm. On reflection, the most important lesson I take away from this place is the need to constantly recalibrate your own moral compass. We must be vigilant in here in ensuring it remains always pointing true north. I have Army to thank for instilling this practice in me. Constantly doing so has made it possible for me to navigate through some of the most challenging circumstances, and it has made complex moral decisions far easier. It also made the challenging issue of leadership challenges—three of which I went through—a relative breeze. My motto was: 'You always support the leader, unless there is a serious misconduct.' And if you support the leader, you walk with them to the spill. I'm proud I walked twice with the leader, but today, on reflection, I must confess I have some degree of buyer's remorse for the second. Since my early 20s, I've worked in this building in very many different capacities, so when I came in I really thought I had a good handle on what to expect as a senator. However, the past 11 years have far exceeded my initial expectation in so many really wonderful and often challenging ways. I've had the privilege to serve in two constitutional roles: in the legislature and in executive government—and I'll address each in turn. But there was never any doubt in my mind that, if I was going to put my hand up for federal parliament, it would be for the Senate. I have such a deep respect for the Senate and its role in maintaining the strength and stability of our democracy. But it was in the committees that I found my greatest joy and purpose in the Senate. I counted it up—actually, one of my staff members counted it up—and I've been a member of 30 different committees, many of them on multiple occasions. I've chaired and deputy chaired seven and participated in hundreds of inquiries. I'm proud of all the inquiries and the reports that I've put my name to, but sometimes you're a little prouder of some than others. I think in this place we always have that moment where we realise the power that we possess to champion causes and change so many lives for the better. There are no topics off limits for senators, but we do have to choose which ones we pursue and for how long we pursue them. Now, that realisation came to me when I learned that thousands of young Australians with serious and permanent disabilities were forced to live in aged care. There was simply nowhere else for them to live. I'm so proud that the result of the inquiry, the report itself, was implemented. It has taken time, but thousands upon thousands of those people are now living with support and dignity in the community. In fact, my very last committee report was tabled today. It was the second community affairs committee inquiry into tick bite diseases. I had promised Senator Rachel Siewert at her own valedictory that I would continue the fight for justice for the thousands of Australian victims of tick bites who are so disgracefully and shamefully treated by the medical profession. I now ask my fellow senator, Senator Kovacic, to take on the challenge and to keep the fight going for those people. Sometimes, as well, issues just come across your desk—ones that you actually know very little about, but when you look at them, you just know there is something not right; there is something a little bit stinky. One such issue was the sudden axing of the Western Force club from Super Rugby by the Australian Rugby Union. This devastated fans, players, their families and their club. Now, I couldn't even identify a rugby ball—sorry, some of my friends up there, but I still can't after all these years. They were completely devastated. They could not understand why it happened, so, as the sport was partially federally funded, I sponsored a Senate inquiry. We did get answers for fans and the team, but unfortunately the Australian Rugby Union was never held accountable for their many quite questionable actions that sat behind that reason. Committees in this place can also lead us to very unexpected places. Over time—I'm sure like all of my colleagues here—I came to realise that sometimes solving or addressing some of the issues that we deal with goes well beyond our own national borders. For me, one such issue is tackling modern slavery. This is a crime that exists not just overseas; it is hidden in plain sight right across Australia. As a Liberal, there is no more important freedom for us to fight for than the freedom from slavery and servitude. As a direct result of my work in this place on tackling trafficking and slavery, I now lead global reforms on child trafficking and forced labour, particularly orphanage trafficking. This journey began in 2016 with two parliamentary study programs. The first was a CPA UK sponsored parliamentary education program for Commonwealth MPs on how to tackle modern slavery in legislation. The second was a Save the Children parliamentary study tour to Cambodia. This is where I learned that Australian donors, donors from many other countries and volunteers had inadvertently created a trade in children to satisfy their need and desire to help poor children. It's hideous. But the inquiry report that we initiated when we returned, called Hidden in a plainsight, recommended the introduction of modern slavery legislation in Australia. Significantly, the report also recognised orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery, and we were the first country to do so. One of the proudest moments in my ministerial career was when, as the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, I carried the legislation through the parliament. Since that time, I've worked on developing global partnerships to implement global reforms to stop orphanage trafficking and to reunite over five million children who've been trafficked back with their families. These efforts are coordinated through the orphanage trafficking working group that I chair at a DC based inter-parliamentary taskforce on human trafficking. I'm in this for the long haul. Unfortunately in this speech I can't completely avoid dealing, at least in part, with what I now refer to as 'the plan'. I have never disputed, not once, Brittany Higgins's claim about what happened in my office in the early hours of one Saturday morning. Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz developed a political #MeToo plan based on a simple but very powerful lie—a lie that has now resulted in the longest and largest political scandal in our nation's history and one that is well into its fifth year. Brittany always knew the truth. Justice Lee dealt with this in his judgement, where he sets out the false representations and false warranties given in her settlement deed. Justice Lee said, 'What is notable about Ms Higgin's account of a cover-up or victimisation allegation is not only its inconsistency with the contemporaneous records and its falsities, particularly as to Ms Higgins's dealings with Ms Brown but also its imprecisions and reliance upon speculation and conjecture.' He also said: … putting what occurred at this meeting— on 1 April— and the events of the preceding days together, a clear picture emerges, but it is entirely at odds with the notion of an attempt being made to cover up an allegation … by discouraging it to be reported to the police. The moment Labor's leadership made the conscious decision to politically weaponise Ms Higgins's allegations, my life and the lives of so many others were changed forever. Every human being, no matter how strong they are, has a breaking point. Labor deliberately and so very surgically and relentlessly found mine—whatever it took. That type of persistent and aggressive personal attack would never be tolerated in any other workplace in this country. Labor so badly wanted the allegations that a female cabinet minister and a prime minister had covered up the rape of a young woman to be true that they didn't actually care if it was true or not, I believe. Consequently, as a result of their actions, Labor failed to exercise any proper judgement or independence before becoming so publicly involved in perpetuating a story that Justice Lee described as 'insufficiently scrutinised and factually misconceived conjecture'. I never wanted to sue Brittany or David, but ultimately I was left with no choice. I've been asked why I did it. Once the Attorney-General barred me from defending these highly defendable workplace allegations, he left me with no other alternative but to fight for the truth and for justice under defamation law. The Commonwealth's conduct in the swift settlement with Brittany sent a clear and very unequivocal message to the nation that these demonstrable lies were in fact true. This enabled me to continue to be grossly defamed. As a senator in this place, I had to fight for my and my staff's and my family's reputation. People ask why, but if in the Senate, in this chamber, we don't fight for truth and justice, where on earth in Australia do we fight for it? I had no choice. Of course I had to fight. Once Justice Tottle has delivered his judgement then I will have a lot more to say about this. However, I conclude on this matter by saying this: in the next parliament, it is my great hope that all parties can come together to agree on how we set the standard in this place and calibrate it so it is the same standard that we legislate for every other workplace in this country. To do that, to set the standard, those in this chamber—not 'we'; it won't be 'we' anymore—will have to agree on where robust and privileged debate finishes and where inappropriate workplace behaviours and bullying starts. The abuse of parliamentary privilege is no longer acceptable. Scott Morrison appointed me to several portfolios over his tenure as Prime Minister, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that he gave me: emergency management, defence industry, Defence, the NDIS and government services. Scott and I spent much time together in 2019 and 2020, visiting a range of natural disasters across this country, and what I saw in him was a leader who had great empathy and demanded decisive action for those in urgent need. What he saw in me then as emergency management minister he also saw in me as defence minister. We may have had our differences on occasion, but, when I collapsed in this place, Scott rushed over to the anteroom and he was so incredibly kind. He sat with me for over an hour while I was sobbing hysterically and completely incoherently. He sat there, he looked after me and, throughout my recovery, he stayed in contact with me and my doctor. When others were baying for my head, he kept me in cabinet, which gave me a new purpose. It gave me a new challenge and it gave me hope. What happened to me also happened to him and to his family. He was also a target of the plan, of the lie. So, Scott, I thank you for your service to the nation and for your stewardship of this nation through the COVID-19 pandemic. Your leadership and the decisions you took saved tens of thousands of Australian lives, millions of jobs and thousands and thousands of companies. I thank you for that. It was an extraordinary time in these portfolios, but time doesn't permit me to address them all tonight. Scott and I had a shared understanding of what our nation needed for its defence, and together we delivered it: a defence strategic update and an accompanying force structure plan; the budget to fund it; new agreements with the United States. I signed an agreement with NATO. And, with some of the people in the chamber tonight, we set this country on the pathway towards nuclear submarines. I came into the Defence portfolio well prepared after a long career in the Army as a senior officer, having worked at higher headquarters and having completed a master's in strategic studies at the War College. It was very clear to both Scott and me that we were facing a higher risk and a rapidly changing strategic landscape, the worst since World War II. Not long after becoming the minister, I gave a keynote speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. I started with the observation that the rules based order we had lived in since the end of World War II was no more and was not coming back. Sadly, that has proved to be true. Alarmingly, the threat has only increased since then. That is due in large part to not just China but the new axis of convenience—China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The brutal reality we very rarely discuss in this place is that we have a four-nation axis of dictatorship and authoritarianism that has a shared enemy, and that is democracy and that is us. This axis is rapidly expanding its political and military spheres of influence. All these regimes have nuclear capabilities. They exert brutal control over their citizens, they have no regard for human life and they have a shared hatred of democratic values. This axis has already progressed from non-kinetic to kinetic war in two theatres of war—Russia in Ukraine and Iran in Israel and the Red Sea, with the support of proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. I acknowledge the Ukrainian ambassador, who joins us here this evening. He has been an astonishing advocate for his nation. I am in complete awe of the work you do for the family and the friends that you have lost yourself and for seeing your country under such relentless attack. I acknowledge the bravery of the Ukrainian people. As I've said many times in this place, their war is our war. Absolutely, their war is our war, and we need to be doing far more to help Ukraine defeat Russia. I know there are a lot of discussions going on globally at the moment, but, as I said in here in a much longer speech, appeasement of Russia will not work. The United States appeased Russia 10 years ago and gave them Crimea: 'They won't take anything more'—until they did. It's not just Russia. China has a vice-like grip on the South China Sea and is well advanced in its preparations to cross the Taiwan Strait. North Korea continues to advance its nuclear and long-range strike capabilities. They are providing ballistic missiles to Russia and are gazing oh-so-longingly over the DMZ. What this axis have over us at the moment is they understand the benefits of shared industrial and military alliances and materiel alliances to achieve what they cannot on their own—and they're not just doing it as the four of them anymore. They're doing it with many BRICS members, who are not even hedging their bets anymore; they've just jumped ship. As a Western Australian senator, I've been aware for many years that China has been quietly and persistently manipulating critical minerals and rare-earth commodity markets globally. They've done this to stockpile offtake and monopolise processing. This, combined with the CCP's prolific use of slave, forced and bonded labour, provides China provides with an overwhelming economic advantage in the new energy technology sectors. This is something that those opposite know only too well, but it is inconceivable that anybody in this nation would choose a solar panel, a wind turbine or an electric vehicle over human life. We have to find ways in this place to deal with both—to stand up for human life while we transition to net zero. Robert Menzies observed in one of his many 'Forgotten people' speeches that Australians take a great many things for granted, which I think was just as true then, in 1942, as it is now. One of the most important things we take for granted is the health of our democracy. We have forgotten as a nation what it takes to preserve and strengthen our democracy. How do we strengthen the institutions that prop up our democracy? But I don't yet see a catalyst for change. That is one of the next things—it's unfinished business for me—that we need to review. In both my military and my civilian career, I've not just had command positions but led three successive reform projects that deliver change, and change that has stuck. I know that change is never easy, but it is always possible. During COVID-19, we, in this place, and the government demonstrated that we can do things quickly. We can get things done quickly. We can create vaccines. We can get the public servants to get money out the door the next day. We can do things, but, if identifying problems was an Olympic sport, Australia would lead the gold medal tally. We have endless royal commissions, we have inquiries, we have reviews, and we inquire into hundreds of issues every year in this place, but the recommendations are rarely, if ever, fully implemented—if at all. Being Deputy Chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, I know that every single report, for decades, has said the same things over and over. We make policy and we implement legislation, but little of it actually gets implemented effectively. I'm a transformative conservative; I'm not a radical one. There's a lot of discussion and debate, particularly in the United States, about this at the moment. I don't believe that the radical destruction of the status quo will automatically result in the delivery of better outcomes. It will certainly tear down underperforming institutions, but we need more than that. We need a plan for how we rebuild. For what we cut or what we remove, how we are actually going to make what we replace it with far more efficient and effective with the taxpayers' money? I will finish off with a couple of ministerial observations. One of the greatest joys of my time in this place was being Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The NDIS is a fundamentally Liberal insurance scheme. It is not a welfare scheme. It is designed to help provide Australians with the most serious and permanent disabilities the dignity and the ability to realise their own life choices and aspirations. But that is not the scheme it is today. My greatest regret, as the Minister for the NDIS, is that four years ago I was unable to convince Bill Shorten and Labor to work with me and the government to reform the serious structural problems that has made it unsustainable. There were no shortcuts then, and there are even fewer four years later. The fundamental problem is that, as an insurance scheme, the Commonwealth government is powerless to control either lever of the insurance scheme: the number of participants and the cost per participant. Until we can get control of that and the intergovernmental agreements are completely reformed, this scheme, unfortunately, is on a trajectory to failure, and that would probably be the biggest public policy failure of our generation. So, after the election, all parties need to find a way to come together to take the tough decisions to ensure that this scheme survives—but for those for whom it was designed. One event I would like to share with everybody in the chamber is probably one of the most special and extraordinary events I have experienced. We all have these things that just delight, surprise and fill us with joy. In 2021, when the Taliban had returned to Kabul, Australia joined like-minded countries and formed a temporary evacuation air bridge out of the Hamid Karzai airport. I contacted my friend, a former Afghan politician, Shukria Barakzai, to see if she was okay and if she needed help in leaving. She told me that she was fine—but afterwards found out that she wasn't—but she wanted me to help a young journalist, Khalid Amiri, and his family, who were being hunted by the Taliban and who needed help to get out. I made contact with Khalid on Twitter at the time, and the most extraordinary series of events followed over the next several days, including hundreds of WhatsApp messages between us, as he and his family were navigating the streets of Kabul in burqas to hide their identities. Thanks to Marise and her team, we got them visas. They managed to get to the sewers of Abbey Gate with thousands and thousands of other desperate Afghans, and then there was silence and silence. But then, wonderfully, in question time I received a message from Khalid. He sent me a photo right from the wall at Abbey Gate, and I could see the back of two marines sitting on the wall. I asked him to hand his phone to one of them to see whether the marine would talk to me and whether I could convince that marine that they were Australians, that they had visas and that we wanted them to come to Australia. Wonderfully, this marine, whose name I can't mention, but who has been thanked, came on the phone. He knew lots of Aussies from the marine corps, so he recognised the accent. He took Khalid over the wall with his family and dropped them off at the Australian collection point. The rest is now history. Khalid and his family, 16 in total, are now settled in Melbourne, and they are great Australians. They're studying. They're working. Their daughters go to school, have ambitions and have a life in front of them. Khalid has just finished his master's degree at Melbourne University and is now winning awards as a voice for his people, particularly young women. This reminds me that in this place we can't save everybody, but we can save some, and I think that's why we do what we do in this place. As I prepared this speech, I was thinking about who I had to thank—there are many!—and I realised that my overwhelming feeling was one of immense gratitude to so many people. Firstly, to the people of Western Australia who elected me to represent them, four times in fact: I hope I have done you proud. To the Liberal Party, my philosophical home for nearly 40 years: I've made so many friends over that time, and so many of them are here tonight. There are far too many of you to thank individually, but you know who you all are and what you mean to me. I also thank my Western Australian colleagues, many of whom are here tonight, and our leader. As Western Australians, we are one mighty team. We are united in our passion for and our commitment to Western Australia. We are so ably led by Michaelia Cash, who is such a wonderful Western Australian. She's a strong leader, and I thank you for your leadership of our team. We've still got a mighty job ahead of us now to win enough seats so that, Peter, you become Prime Minister, and we are in that a hundred per cent. I'd also like to acknowledge Sir Lynton Crosby and Lady Crosby. Lynton gave me my first big job in the Liberal Party. Lynton saw something in me. He gave me so many opportunities and I received such wonderful mentorship over many years. It means a lot to me that you are both here tonight. Thank you for everything that you have done and for your friendship. To my Army mates—who are many—here this evening, it is a very, very special bond we have, and it means a great deal to me that you are here tonight. I'm sure there will be a few wines to celebrate after this, but I am very grateful. Thank you. To my very special friends Heather and Danielle, you couldn't be here tonight, but you have been wonderful, loyal friends and champions, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do for so many women in the Liberal Party, including me. You are incredibly generous with your time and your money. I'm truly blessed to have had so many amazing friends in and out of this place. Again, many of you are here, and I thank you for that. Unfortunately, Marise couldn't be here tonight, and I want to give a special thanks to Marise—and to Ann and Jane and many others in here. They say that sometimes this building is a very lonely place, and it can be desperately lonely, but when the chips are down and when you can't defend yourself or look after yourself, you have people here who drop everything. They rally around you, they lift you, they support you, and they make sure you're okay, and for that I cannot say thank you enough. You are the reason I am still standing here today. I'm blessed with the most amazing staff, both in my electorate at ministerial offices. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to you all, one I know I will never be able to repay, but I hope in some way that you take great pride in the work that you have done and the experiences that you have gained. But I am sorry that, for a number of you, your choice of workplace—working for me—was not always a safe one. You, too, have been subject to behaviours that would be unacceptable in any other workplace: a tsunami of hatred directed at me by every possible communication medium. For that, I thank you. Again, there are no suitable words. To Michelle Lewis, who has been my EA and office manager for what I'm sure she feels are 11 very long years. And it's wonderful to see James Smith, who organised my life as Minister for Defence so beautifully. I thank you for the care you took in ensuring that I was always where I needed to be and always perfectly turned out. Michelle, saying your job has not always been easy is an understatement. I'm more grateful than I can say for your leadership, your friendship and your carriage of our mighty team, and I'm sorry for the burdens that you've also had to carry. To my current team—Ashley, Josh, Kyle, Charles and Matt—thank you for the amazing contributions you continue to make. They are incredibly valued, and you are all highly respected for your professionalism, just as are a number of former staff here who have gone on to much bigger and better things in many different careers. So to all my ministerial staff, I say thank you. My extraordinarily talented and committed ministerial teams were so ably led by Fiona Brown, Scott Dewar, Alex Kelton and Darren Disney—and, of course, Dean Carlton, Alex's mighty deputy. Leading ministerial offices is never easy, particularly in cabinet portfolios, where you have ministers with big portfolio ambitions. I'm grateful for all your hard work, and I hope, as I said, you're all rightly proud of your contributions. We don't often, in this place, thank enough the thousands of staff that keep our building, the engine room of democracy, going. There are thousands of staff who keep this place operating, from the wonderful attendants in this chamber to the Black Rod, the Clerk, the cleaners, the gardeners, the drivers, the printers, the caterers, the researchers, the guides and so many more. We don't say it often enough, but thank you. I may also be the first senator ever to thank their lawyers and their doctors. This might be a first! Firstly, to Ashley Tsacalos and his team at Clayton Utz, over the past four years, you have supported me through a defamation case, a criminal trial, a judicial inquiry into the criminal trial, a civil workplace claim, multiple defamation claims and two NACC referrals. Your compassion, your professionalism and your sheer endurance have kept me going through these never-ending proceedings, so thank you. Inadequate as it is, again, thank you. To Martin Bennett and his amazing team—Rachel, Taleesha, Andrew and Cindy—you have supported me now through several separate defamation actions, including the defamation case we are awaiting the verdict for. I'm so grateful that they have been so thorough in piecing together the detail of the plan. There are thousands and thousands of documents now that demonstrate exactly how this plan was developed and executed, and I'm very grateful that you have brought to light the truth, which has given me great peace—and, I know, many others in terms of finally having their voices heard. Having you in my corner has been life-changing in so many ways. Now, to my doctors. To both Dr Antonio Di Dio and my cardiologist, Professor Abhayaratna—I'm sorry; I always mispronounce it—this patient thanks you for your medical care and the patience you have shown me along this medical journey, often with it playing out in the national media and in the courts. I thank you. As I said at the very beginning, my family means everything to me, in ways that words cannot capture. But I know you know how much I love you and how much I care for you all. I'm also incredibly grateful for the hundreds, if not thousands, of random acts of kindness that my team and I have received from total strangers who send these most wonderful messages. It has made all of the difference, and it reminds us that there is great good out there and that there are good people in the community. My final and most heartfelt thanks go to Robert. I'm so very grateful for the love and unconditional support, particularly over the past four years. It has been unimaginably tough for you. You have had to fight your own battles as well as mine, but you have never taken a step away from my side. For that, I love and thank you. We all leave this place with unfinished business. I certainly do. My colleagues will not be surprised to learn that I have already written to various ministers, shadow ministers and colleagues with some detailed briefing notes on the reforms that are still to be delivered. Rest assured, I will be following you up on orphanage trafficking, antislavery, intercountry adoptions, defence spending, AUKUS implementation and Liberal Party gender reform. I am more determined than ever to finally realise genuine gender reform in the Liberal Party. It is absolutely, well and truly beyond time, but I will have more to say about that. In conclusion, I leave this place with great sadness but also with immense gratitude and great pride. Sorry! I know who I am, and I remain true to my values. I know who I am as a woman and as leader, and I have confidence in my abilities. I'm a much better and wiser person for the sum of my experiences in this place, and I thank the people of Western Australia and the Liberal Party of Western Australia for the greatest honour of my life. I look forward—I really do, despite the tears—to the next chapter of my service, wherever that will take me. Thank you.
First and valedictory speeches are the bookends to our parliamentary careers. I'm deeply appreciative of the opportunity to do this valedictory speech tonight, to have the opportunity to reflect...
First and valedictory speeches are the bookends to our parliamentary careers. I'm deeply appreciative of the opportunity to do this valedictory speech tonight, to have the opportunity to reflect on the things that I'm so proud to have delivered in this place, and to thank the many people—many of whom are here tonight—who have helped me along the journey. I'm also very grateful to be leaving the Senate at a time of my own choosing—an opportunity I'm very well aware not all members and senators have. But let me be very clear about one thing. While I am leaving at a time of my choosing, the timing of my choosing has been expedited by events that are well known to all in this place. Those events have inflicted deep wounds on so many. However, my wounds do not define who I am. They have not distracted me for a second from what I was elected to do here as a senator and member, but they have made me stronger and they have made me wiser. More on that later. None of us succeed in this place on our own. We are at our best in this place when we collaborate to deliver meaningful and important reforms for our nation. It is a real shame that more Australians don't get to see this dirty little secret of ours—about how much we do actually work together across the aisle in this place. I've got so many people to thank, which I will do at the end. But I do have a few acknowledgements upfront. Foremost is to my family—my partner, Robert; my father, Laith; my brother Andrew, and his partner, Angela, and his daughters, Octavia and Anastasia; and my mother, Jan, who is so desperately sad that she could not be here tonight but is watching from home in Perth. To you, Mum, I say, 'Thank you,' and, 'I love you.' But I am somewhat comforted that my brother Cameron and his wife, Charlotte, and his two daughters, Olivia and Sophie, will be with her this evening. As senators, we choose this life, but our families are conscripts. I think it's safe to say that it's never really been that easy to be related to me. I've got to say, what those opposite did to me was so brutal and so deliberate, but they also did it to my family and my partner. For that, I am so deeply sorry that my career choice has done so much damage to those that I love the most. I'm also more grateful than I could ever express that so many friends, staff and colleagues are here tonight, and I know many more are watching online. I've received the photos of the screen on with the glasses of wine in front.
National Disability Insurance Scheme; Order for the Production of Documents | Documents | Senate debates
It is with a great deal of sadness that I rise to speak on this motion for the 19th time. I rise with sadness because I reflect on the fact that, four years ago, as the Minister for the NDIS, I...
It is with a great deal of sadness that I rise to speak on this motion for the 19th time. I rise with sadness because I reflect on the fact that, four years ago, as the Minister for the NDIS, I saw very, very clearly that this was a scheme that needed significant reform because the original legislation was deeply flawed. The federal government, who was responsible for all of the cost overruns, not the states and territories, had no way of impacting the levers of the insurance scheme—that is, the number of participants in the scheme and the average cost per participant. We also needed to fundamentally reform the intergovernmental agreements with each state and territory so that they had the financial incentive to ensure that this scheme was sustainable. I reached out to Bill Shorten, the shadow minister at the time, and I said: 'These are the reforms that we need to do. Will you work with us?' He agreed to two tranches of reforms for participant protections, which were very important, as long as we didn't tell anyone that he'd actually agreed to them. I'm very proud that we got those pieces of legislation through, but I'm deeply saddened that Bill Shorten instead took the option that he always takes, and that is to play the basest of politics with the lives of the now nearly 700,000 people on the NDIS and their millions of family members. Had Bill Shorten and the Labor Party had the political courage and the decency to work with us to genuinely reform this scheme to ensure that it was sustainable, today, four years later, it would be a very different scheme. It would be a scheme for those it was designed for, the 350,000 or so Australians who had permanent and serious disabilities. They were treated appallingly, largely in state-run facilities, where they were abused. They weren't treated with dignity or respect, and they lived the most miserable of lives. The scheme was designed for those Australians. I think both sides of the chamber have responsibility for the flawed design, but equally we both have a responsibility to fix this scheme. Instead, 19 times the minister has come to this place and said, 'We've run yet another review of this scheme.' There had already been thirty reviews before the government spent the last three years reviewing this scheme. So what have they done? Instead of reforming the scheme, they have made huge, extraordinary, arbitrary cuts to people's plans. They are no further along in dealing with the states and territories in terms of the intergovernmental agreements. As this is likely my last speech on the NDIS, I implore those opposite: after this election, stop taking the easy and politically expedient way and actually work on a multipartisan basis on this scheme. We and the Greens have always been willing to work together with you. Do not allow the political pollution that Bill Shorten has brought into this scheme. Work with us to reform the scheme. Ensure that those who need the scheme the most have certainty for the rest of their lives and, as Senator Hughes so poignantly just said, that their families understand that their children will be taken care of. They are the most terrified people at the moment, as a result of the politics of those opposite. They are desperately concerned that this scheme will implode and they will be back where they started over a decade ago. Yes, we need to make sure that the 12 per cent—in fact, closer to 15 per cent under those opposite—of young boys with autism are on the scheme. Those with the severest form of autism, of course, should be on the scheme, but, with so many other disability types, they should be getting the support in their communities from the state government. After this election, every level of government has to stand up and do the right thing together. Question agreed to.
Ukraine | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
Winston Churchill said in 1938 that an appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile, hoping against hope it will eat him last. These words were quite prophetic five days after the disastrous Munich...
Winston Churchill said in 1938 that an appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile, hoping against hope it will eat him last. These words were quite prophetic five days after the disastrous Munich Peace Conference in September 1938. It was true then, and it is just as true today. 24 February will mark the third-year anniversary of the illegal invasion by Russia of Ukraine. For 1,085 days, Ukraine has stood defiant and resilient against Russia's unlawful invasion. The cost is incalculable. Today, we reflect on the Munich Security Conference announcement that next week Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet to decide the future of Ukraine without Ukraine. The conditions of not returning Ukraine's pre-2014 borders and disallowing Ukraine's NATO membership, to my mind, is appeasement—appeasement in Munich once again. Despots and dictators never ever respect appeasement. They patiently and ruthlessly exploit it. If Vladimir Putin is appeased once again next week, it will simply buy him time to regroup and continue his relentless annexation. Appeasement did not work in 2014, when Russia illegally invaded and annexed Crimea, but yet the rest of the world sat by, Sudetenland-like, and said, 'We'll give him Crimea; he won't do anything more.' Well, clearly it did not work. It simply emboldened Putin to keep going. Ukraine's war is our war. It is the West's war. It is our war. Slava Ukraini.
Albanese Government | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
Despite all the bluff and bluster of those opposite, the facts are that, 2½ years ago, Anthony Albanese, now our Prime Minister, promised all Australians that life would be cheaper under...
Despite all the bluff and bluster of those opposite, the facts are that, 2½ years ago, Anthony Albanese, now our Prime Minister, promised all Australians that life would be cheaper under Labor. They would have cheaper mortgages. They would have cheaper electricity, and everybody would be better off. Those opposite can say black is white and sit there and talk about everything else but the cost of living, but, far from being Australia's saviour, I think the best analogy is that he is the emperor with new clothes. In fact, nobody on that side of the chamber, including the Greens, has got the courage to tell him that he has no clothes on. The tragedy for all Australians, including Western Australians, is the reality that hardworking families, hardworking households and small businesses are doing it incredibly tough. No matter how much those opposite refuse to tell the Prime Minister the truth, Australians are not stupid. They know exactly what has happened, after 2½ years, to their household budgets. Everything that they spend, every bill they have, has gone up around about 10 per cent or, in some cases, more. It never had to be this way. It hasn't just happened; it has happened because of the deliberate policies that those opposite have implemented. What are some of the facts? In just 2½ years, 27,000 small businesses, which are the backbone of this economy, have been forced to shut up shop. In Western Australia, small businesses make up 97 per cent of all businesses, but over a thousand went to the wall because they could no longer afford the cost of doing business. For average Western Australians, in fact for all Western Australians, whether it's a trip to the supermarket, opening up their power bills, seeing the mortgage rise and rise or the cost of their insurance, everything has been going up. We've also learnt, today, that Western Australia has endured the biggest fall in bulk-billing by GPs across the country under those opposite. For all of the rhetoric that it's all roses for those who need to access their GP, we have the biggest fall in bulk-billing. In fact, in WA, only 6.2 per cent of clinics are bulk-billing patients, meaning that is one clinic per 46,500 Western Australians that bulk bill. Western Australians are paying the most for a visit to a GP. The out-of-pocket expenses for one visit to a GP in Western Australia is now $42.66, and that is just for a standard GP appointment, which is putting even further pressure on Western Australian household budgets. No matter what those opposite say, no matter how much they deny it, no matter how much they do not want to tell the Prime Minister that his new clothes are transparent, he thinks he's the great emperor, coming into this country to save Australians. But he's a bit like George Costanza. George Costanza learnt that he had to do everything that he said he wasn't going to do. All his instincts were wrong, so he had to go against his instincts. This Prime Minister's instincts for managing the economy, health, education, disability, mortgages and housing—we heard today that those opposite have not built a single house under their housing policy. Not a single house has been delivered, and that is to the detriment of all Western Australians. Shame on you! Western Australians and other Australians have woken up to you.
Answers to Questions | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
As a very proud West Australian senator, it is absolutely shocking what those opposites are doing in relation to the gas policy for this nation. Not only are they exploiting and paying the...
As a very proud West Australian senator, it is absolutely shocking what those opposites are doing in relation to the gas policy for this nation. Not only are they exploiting and paying the environmental defenders offices to do their dirty work for them, but we've seen in question time alone just how dirty that work is. But I am very proud to say that gas is good. In fact, gas is great, and those opposites speak with terribly forked tongues. You have the minister for minerals and energy in Western Australia saying how good it is, how important it is, but they do not back it up with action. Natural gas is a vital part of the energy mix, and the energy transition, over time, to net zero or zero energy. Government must not just say, on one side of the country, that we need gas. Whatever your view on the energy market going forward, whether you support nuclear energy or you want a heavier load of renewables, gas is essential. It is still going to be essential for decades and decades to come, so let's just have a look at the hypocrisy of those opposite. Now, it's not just me who thinks gas is good. Reece Whitby is the Western Australian Labor environment minister who gave the approval in Western Australia last year—after six years, mind you. They had to start the review process over again because a bureaucrat left. It took them six years to approve it. The Western Australian Labor state minister said that gas is the enabler of renewables, especially in Western Australia. If you want to use renewables, you must have gas. The whole of Western Australia is essentially powered by gas. It runs all of our industries. All jobs in Western Australia—tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs in mining, manufacturing and mineral processing—are powered by gas, and they will continue to be so for decades to come. While gas is poured out of Western Australia, investment and jobs have poured in, not just into the gas sector itself but also into all of the enabling industries in Western Australia. But the North West Shelf does need to be extended—in fact, out to 2070. It has had six years so far. As Meg O'Neill, the amazing CEO of Woodside, has said: We have a plant. We're not changing the fence line, we're not changing the stuff that's inside the plant. If anything we're going to be improving the emissions performance. It took six years for the Labor government in Western Australia to finally come to the conclusion that gas is good and necessary. She said that it was baffling. And now we come to the federal environment minister. She's got to get the report on the project from her department by the end of this month, but I'll bet you anything she ain't going to make a decision on this before the federal election. And why? It is because their partners in environmental and economic crimes, the Greens, will absolutely go mad at them—we've heard them. So what do we need to do from here? In fact, I might put it this way: Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for the Environment and Water, has a decision to make. We are running out of gas in Western Australia. There are three new projects, which will feed into the existing infrastructure. They will bring in $30 billion of investment and will provide Western Australia with the gas security that it needs. Of course, gas is far cleaner than coal, which is why it is so necessary for the transition. But I say this to Tanya Plibersek: you approved the environmental vandalism of the Perth Hills—the destruction of 60,000 trees to make way for a property developer's high-density housing development in the Perth Hills in the middle of the most fire-prone area of Western Australia. Question agreed to.
Former Minister Shorten has left prematurely and left every single NDIS participant and their family with an almighty mess, which is impacting on their lives in the most profound of ways. But the...
Former Minister Shorten has left prematurely and left every single NDIS participant and their family with an almighty mess, which is impacting on their lives in the most profound of ways. But the biggest of so many things in the mess that he has left behind, which Labor are now scrambling to make sure doesn't come out before the election, is that they've cut $60 billion out of the scheme. They've forced tens of thousands of participants through reviews. They've delayed plans. They're still hiding budget figures. They commissioned Redbridge and spent an enormous amount of money on how to spin this through. Let's have a look at what they're actually hiding. Total payments continue to increase due to both increased participant numbers and a higher average cost per participant—the two drivers of cost. That's despite everything they say—this mythical eight per cent, which is what is in the budget. Senator Hughes last week was talking about an $11 billion black hole. Well, I'll tell you what, when you have a look at the fiction of the NDIS figures you see it is far more than that. This is the fact: total payments continue to increase due to both cost drivers. In the first quarter it was $11.5 billion of expenditure. This total payment level is actually on track to exceed last year's expenditure on the NDIS, which has not been budgeted for in this year's budget. So now the government are desperately talking to the states and territories: 'Can you give us a loan?' They've had 2½ years and there is no agreement with the states and territories on foundational supports. Why would there be? They vacated the field, as Senator Steele-John said, for nearly a decade. Not only are they not going to find the money but it's already a thin provider market. Where are these people going to come from? Plan inflation also continues to rise, with the annualised inflation level at 12.8, not their mythical eight per cent. This is a fraud on people with disability and on all Australian taxpayers. Question agreed to.
I was mentioning him by his name. 'Former minister Shorten', then—I'll say that.
For 18 months, senators in this place have been coming to ask those opposite for the most basic of information on the NDIS. I heartily endorse Senator Steele-John's comments that this government,...
For 18 months, senators in this place have been coming to ask those opposite for the most basic of information on the NDIS. I heartily endorse Senator Steele-John's comments that this government, shamefully, not only have a complete lack of transparency but have basically given a one-fingered or two-fingered-salute to senators and to the over 650,000 Australians now on the NDIS. Apart from the colossal failure of those opposite to actually deal with the problems, time and time again in this place, when I approached Bill Shorten as the minister and said, 'We have some serious structural issues with the NDIS that we need to fix, and we need to be able to control both drivers of cost: the number of people on the scheme and also the average cost per participant on the scheme,' we heard Bill Shorten say, 'There's nothing wrong with the scheme; you're just making it all up.' He comes into government and says, 'Oh, dear; I never read the budget papers or any of the reports from the NDIS, and the scheme is in trouble.' Instead of saying, 'Oops, we got it wrong,' he just doubled down. He had another review that was completely unnecessary. He said, 'We can't really do anything until after the review's finished,' and 18 months later he said, 'Well, we're not going to make any cuts to the scheme.' Well, that was just a big fat untruth. I'll go through the numbers in a second. They have been cutting on this scheme as if there were no tomorrow, indiscriminately. What we haven't really heard—and Senator Hughes touched on it—is that foundational supports, as they're now called, are what was called tier 2 supports when the Commonwealth government went into interim intergovernmental agreements with states and territories. The states and territories were always responsible for community based support for those who were not going to be eligible for the NDIS. Don't forget that this was a scheme for Australians who had the most serious and permanent disabilities—those Australians who lived miserable, horrible lives in state and territory facilities and who were denied the most basic human respect and dignity. Those opposite now have a strategy just to get themselves through the next election. No wonder Bill Shorten scarpered off before the election and before his financial fraud was exposed.
Department of Defence | Documents | Senate debates
I rise today to discuss the Department of Defence annual report 2023-24 and the subsequent committee inquiry. The report included five key themes, with the first theme focusing on Australia's...
I rise today to discuss the Department of Defence annual report 2023-24 and the subsequent committee inquiry. The report included five key themes, with the first theme focusing on Australia's assistance to Ukraine. It's important to note this month, on 24 February, is the three-year anniversary of Russia's unlawful and brutal invasion of Ukraine. For 1,078 days, Ukraine has stood resilient and pushed back in defence of their sovereignty and of global democracy. As a democratic nation that always stands up with other nations that face an existential threat to their very being, we have stood up and supported them and supported democracy. But I'm afraid that Australia, like many other nations, is doing just enough so that Ukraine doesn't lose, but also doesn't win the war. There are five recommendations from the report on Australia's assistance to Ukraine: (1) that the Australian government continue providing military assistance to Ukraine while exploring additional opportunities to encourage and support Australian industry and institutions to further contribute to the support effort; (2) Defence publishes a statement on its internal policy approach to Ukraine; (3) the Australian government establish a whole-of-government mechanism, a one-stop shop, potentially within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; (4) the Australian government review any legislation, regulations or policies that govern decisions around the placement of diplomatic personnel in high-risk locations; and (5) the Australian government reopen, finally, the Australian embassy in Ukraine, with a permanent military attache alongside it as soon as possible. So the first thing I would do is call on this government to provide a report back to this place on the progress and the timeline for each of the five recommendations. This ongoing war of aggression is a stark reminder of how fragile democracies can be, and how vital it is for Australia to do all it can to help others fight their wars, because, if we were in their shoes, we would absolutely want and expect other nations to help us defeat tyranny. Late last year I hosted a briefing with His Excellency the Ambassador of Ukraine and Dr Yuriy Scherbak, an adviser to Ukraine's ministry for strategic industries. I did that as a co-chair of the parliamentary friendship group of Ukraine. They highlighted the urgent need for further support to fight back against Russia. Australia ranks 35th out of 41. How pathetic is that? We are 35th out of 41 donors on the German Kiel Institute Ukraine support index, which ranks the aid given by donors to Ukraine. This is a sad indictment on this government. Not only are we 35th out of 41 donors but the materiel provided to Ukraine has that whiff of being the old junk out of the cupboard we no longer want, and it's certainly not what Ukraine have consistently said to us that they need. One of the things that the Ukraine government and the ambassador here have said consistently for nearly 18 months is that the main assistance they want from Australia is help with their communications, which is a huge issue. Twenty-five per cent of Ukrainian fixed networks have been damaged, and over 4,300 base mobile connection stations have either been destroyed or damaged. This is something that Australia can contribute to which will make a huge impact on Ukraine, not only on the battlefront but also in towns that have been cut off, not just now but also when reconstructing. The system that the Ukraine government has requested on more than one occasion from Australia is actually an Australian product. They need 50 of the Citech NEXUS 16 systems, which are manufactured in Western Australia. These systems are important not only for communications on the battlefield but for the recovery of communities back to properly functioning societies. So we must consider, and I urge the government to consider, this request, with the additional funding that's been announced, to back in Australian industries to provide Ukraine with what they have asked. Debate adjourned.
Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I again rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024. As I observed briefly last night, this is a typical Labor piece of legislation. It's...
I again rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024. As I observed briefly last night, this is a typical Labor piece of legislation. It's got a catchy title—no doubt research driven—and those opposite have spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the broader policy in very generic terms. But the fact is that this is about production tax credits. From what those opposite have said, you'd think that this one small measure alone will actually address the challenges and barriers that are now facing our mining, oil and gas sectors. You'd think that this will fix it all. What they didn't actually talk about—and I don't think I heard a single Labor senator actually talk about it—was the production tax credits. They quoted a couple of people in the mining sector who are supportive of this. On its own, it's not a bad policy. It will help a very few in the mining sector. But, again, it doesn't address the big issues that are currently crippling new projects and, in fact, current projects, such as in the nickel industry, which I will come to very shortly. A number of people in the sector have said, 'It's better than nothing at all,' but it does nothing, as I said, to fix the problem. Instead of addressing the fundamental issues that are constraining our mining sector—and, in fact, there are ones that the bill itself has made worse—this government is putting forward this attempt to say, 'We are actually dealing with the challenges that face the critical minerals and rare earth industries which are so essential for the development of new energy technologies'—the so-called net zero technologies. We've got a lot of them here in Australia, but it's taking 15 years under this government from finding a deposit to actually producing it. That is absolutely outrageous. It is ridiculous. These commodities are actually not rare at all. There are vast deposits overseas—in Greenland, as President Trump has identified, and in many other nations. So what's happening? We are not competitive. Companies here can't get capital. They can't get certainty. We in this nation are now defined as a sovereign risk in the mining, oil and gas sectors and that includes for the minerals and the rare earths that are needed to get the globe to net zero. So what are those opposite doing? They have introduced legislation that makes red tape even harder to deal with, even more expensive and longer. Thank goodness 'nature positive' has been shelved for now, but there is nothing more certain than that, if those opposite are actually given the Treasury benches again after the next election, 'nature positive' will be back and it will be a further death knell for Western Australia and Australia's mining and oil and gas sectors. So we oppose this bill not because the individual tax credit will help a mere handful into production, although not into development, but because this is all spin and it doesn't do anything to benefit families, workers or Western Australian industry. Australia has a very proud and long manufacturing history, which this side of politics has always supported. But what does a strong manufacturing and mining sector need? It needs strong economic management to get our country back on track, to get the mining sector and the oil and gas sector back on track, by getting the basics right—everything that this government in just over 2½ years has made infinitely worse. So what does the sector need? It needs affordable and reliable energy. It is more expensive, it is less reliable and, when you have a look at other nations that are now competing actively for our miners, our capital and for the mining projects that could have been built here, what have they got? They've got reliable and cheap energy. They have less regulation. So what have those opposite done? They have made it even worse and longer. They have added five years to projects being delivered. Even for the most critical of minerals they've added five years. What does that mean? It means that projects are now going overseas. Have a look at what Donald Trump has announced in terms of reducing regulation and red tape. It's not to say that here in Australia we want lesser standards. We've got the best standards in the world. But the amount of red, green and black tape that now strangles our businesses has been exacerbated astonishingly in just five years by those opposite. Let's have a look at the critical minerals and rare earth sectors in Western Australia that this is supposedly designed to assist. A few businesses, if they're in production, will benefit from it, and that's a good thing. But, again, it's putting a finger in the dike. Having been a passionate advocate for our critical minerals and rare earth sector for almost all of my time here in the Senate, I've consulted and engaged with the industry over many years. I've worked with them to find meaningful policy outcomes that support the critical role that they play in the prosperity of Western Australia and in the prosperity of our nation. As one of the fastest growing industries, Australia, but Western Australia in particular, does have some of the most significant critical mineral deposits in the world, including virtually all of the minerals on Australia's own Critical Minerals List, and is now the leading supplier of lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, mineral sands and rare earths. We've got advanced critical minerals processing capabilities, with large-scale global investment in refineries, but we could and we should be doing much more. While critical minerals are essential for our energy transition, the sector is facing serious global challenges. As I've said, it has taken far too long in Australia—what investor in their right mind would invest in any project in Western Australia or Australia when they know it's going to take 15 years, the regulatory environment is going to keep changing, there is going to be more and more investment and it takes hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to invest. We're a sovereign risk, and I can't believe I'm saying that in this place—that those opposite have made us a sovereign risk. Of course, companies, investment and capital—it's incredibly mobile, and it is moving. A lot of Australian companies, under the US IRA, have been incentivised to set up production facilities in the United States. Just this week, Meg O'Neill, the CEO of Woodside, said that the Trump administration's early action on deregulation and energy investment adds to the acute challenges facing Australian producers. She also urged the nation to stay focussed on being competitive in global markets, pushing for an energy policy debate based on science and facts and not wishful thinking. She also said, 'Amid rising global protection and greater competition for global capital, Australian must sharpen its competitive edge even further.' But this bill does not do that. This bill does not come within cooee of doing that. Instead, it's just a quick fix, pre-election, for the Labor government to say: 'See? We get rare earths and critical minerals. See? We're doing this.' But they're not. You're picking a few winners. You're picking a very small part of the market to help. You are not making any difference—any positive difference, anyway. Let's have a look at one of the sectors, just one of the sectors, and what's happened to the nickel production here in Australia. This is in the context of a global cold war going on between China, Australia and our allies. It's a battle that we are continuing to lose. This is a battle that's being fought not on a traditional battlefield but in the global mining commodity markets, across many commodities, and it's done differently commodity by commodity. Our nickel industry, which is so important in Western Australia, is a prime example of this battle. Significant Chinese investment has bombed the global nickel market. They've invested in new nickel mines and processing in Indonesia, and Indonesia has far lower costs. They've got faster regulatory timelines. They've got affordable and reliable power, and they have Chinese investment led infrastructure. Our domestic market, our nickel companies, did not see it coming. They didn't think that this investment could happen so fast, and they were blindsided by something that was hidden in plain sight. The fact is that the nickel we produce remains significantly less emission intensive than that in Indonesia and elsewhere. It is cleaner, demonstrably cleaner, but it is more expensive. Our market share has now plummeted from 16 per cent of the global market to just four per cent today, and it is dropping. BHP's announcement that it will suspend its Nickel West operations in the Goldfields highlights the consequence of this battle. China's systematic manipulation of global commodity markets, not just the nickel market but many others—they do this through subsidies, export restrictions and strategic stockpiling—have undermined the markets. Yet we are doing nothing to combat that to assist our own companies. In conclusion, it is a really sad indictment of this government—and, sadly, we've seen so many other examples in this place—that it's all about perception, politics and spin rather than about any genuine attempt to support our mining and oil and gas sectors. As a Western Australian, that breaks my heart, because we can see it in Western Australia. Fifteen years is far too long. People are just not going to invest anymore, because there are plenty of other markets where they can get the commodities faster, cheaper and more reliably than Australia. That is a shame, because we still have the best environmentally sustainable standards. We are slavery free. We have mine rehabilitation. And our product is traceable. But, again, we are doing nothing in this country and nothing in this bill to save those industries and to prop up our economy.
Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024 (No. 2); Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I, too, rise to speak on the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024, and I do so with a very heavy heart. I find it almost inconceivable that in this day and...
I, too, rise to speak on the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024, and I do so with a very heavy heart. I find it almost inconceivable that in this day and age this bill is necessary. I commend my colleague Senator Henderson for her leadership in this area. I participated in the hearings of this bill, and I was utterly dismayed to hear some of the responses of the chancellors, but particularly the Australian Human Rights Commission, who were completely blind to this most ancient and wicked form of discrimination. I start by making this observation—that there can never be security or safety in appeasement, where there is appeasement of dictators or antisemites or others who wish others harm. There is no peace and there is no security in appeasement. In fact, I have before quoted Winston Churchill, who in 1940 observed that—this is appeasers: Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their time comes to be devoured. In recent years, it's been shortened to 'An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.' Sadly and almost unbelievably, today in our nation this is what we are now getting from our Prime Minister. Whether it is standing up with our democratic allies and friends to fight back against dictators who hate us, who hate democracy, and who have formed an axis of evil to support each other's activities—Russia in the Ukraine. Remember, a decade ago, the West appeased him, Putin, and what did he do? He was emboldened by it and came back for more, and much more, of Ukraine. Today, here in Australia we are witnessing the most extraordinary acts of hate against Jewish Australians. Not only are we seeing it across the nation; we are now seeing it—and arguably it started—in our universities with the radicalisation of our students and the complete failure of leadership by a number of vice-chancellors, who turned to mush in the face of this. Whether ideologically it wasn't their flavour or whether they were just afraid, they appeased the voices of hate and hatred and the accompanying acts. So, as the university students return for this academic year, everybody in our universities has the right to be safe. I had the great privilege of attending the Holocaust 80th commemorative service in Perth. I thank and commend the Australian Jewish community. It was a most powerful service. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition attended. Sadly, it looked like the Prime Minister was in witness protection, flanked and protected by the Premier of Western Australia, but I was so proud to see so many Liberal colleagues there, along with the Leader of the Opposition. Amongst the many moving speeches, we heard from Western Australian students about the impact that this has had on their mental health, on their sense of security, on their sense of identity here in Australia. The director of education at the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia, Judith Lawrence, made an astonishing speech, and she's given me permission to read some of what she said. I, in my own words, can't do justice to what she said. She said: 'How was the Holocaust humanly possible? The question haunts us still. The Holocaust was not the product of one moment, nor of one man. It was the result of a world that allowed hatred to take root unchecked until it reached its most horrific expression. It started small. Words, propaganda, exclusion, discrimination, violence, extermination—it was gradual until it was sudden.' To pause there, all of those things, bar the ultimate expression of that in terms of extermination, are things that, until now, for 18 months or more, have gone unchecked. And, as she said, it was gradual until it was sudden. She said, as we reflected on this year's theme, which was for a better future: 'As Australians, we all ask ourselves: what have we learnt from history? Change does not happen overnight. It is gradual, insignificant in a single act but transformative over time'—and that is, sadly, exactly what we are seeing here in Australia today—'with the small but powerful consistent choices we make daily to challenge hate, to open conversations and to foster understanding.' We on this side of the chamber understand that, but we need everybody in this chamber to stand up, to call it out and to stamp out hate. Judith Lawrence also said this: 'Eighty years later, the lessons of the Holocaust remain painfully relevant. Here in Australia we are witnessing a rise in blatant antisemitism. Swastikas smeared publicly, verbal attacks on Jewish individuals, doxxing of the arts community—it is gradual until it is sudden. The Adass synagogue in Melbourne burnt to the ground, firebombed cars and daycare centres in Sydney, attacks on private homes, violent rhetoric and intimidation of Jewish communities—it is gradual until it is sudden.' She made this observation, which, sadly, is also very true: 'The Holocaust was not an aberration in history; it was a warning. And, since then, as we have seen, there have been far too many other genocides over the past 80 years. The patterns of hatred that led to Auschwitz did not begin in 1933, nor did they end in 1945.' As she said, the antisemitism we see today is not new, but it has morphed. The same deeply ingrained Jew hate has been repackaged through modern narratives—and, I would also add, through social media—and adapted to fit contemporary political and ideological movements. But today the same rhetoric of dehumanisation, of blood libels, of conspiracy theories and of scapegoating is being used against Jews globally. It is an indication of broader societal decay. The failure to combat it undermines our social cohesion, and, sadly, that is very true today. I will finish with these comments by Ms Lawrence: 'If we are to truly create a better future, we must recognise these patterns of hate and refuse to allow history to repeat itself. The Holocaust teaches us what happens when prejudice is left unchecked, when silence allows bigotry to grow, and when moral leadership fails to take a stand.' Again, as I said, I find it inconceivable that here in Australia today these attacks, this violence, this antisemitism has been allowed to grow unchecked by state and federal governments. What does that mean? It means that somehow we need to find a way to come together in this chamber, in this place and in this nation to say that all Australians, regardless of religion or background, have the right to be safe in this nation—safe from hatred, freedom from ancient enmities repackaged. The fact is that today we are facing challenges in this nation that we have not seen since the end of World War II. We have a four-nation axis of dictatorship and authoritarianism that has a single shared enemy, and that is us and democracy. They don't respect compromise. They don't respect appeasement. They exploit it—and exploiting it they are. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working together in new ways to support each other's ambitions, and still, as a coalition of democracies, we have been slow to see this, we have been slow to react and, even worse, we have allowed the hatred, the antisemitism and the discord in our nation to grow unchecked. It is like our national leaders in government think that, if they keep feeding the crocodile, they will get eaten last, but the consequences of that in this nation are deadly. Let's remind ourselves what has been going on at our campuses and what has then been more widely fermenting. Since the shocking attack on 7 October 2023, our Jewish communities have faced one of the most difficult periods in their lives. Holocaust survivors who came to Australia and thought they would be safe have been shocked to discover that they are not. The events of that day, the unprovoked attack, resulted in 1,200 innocent people being murdered, which sent shockwaves around the world, including in Australia. That day of depravity was the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day in 80 years, since the Holocaust. It awoke and exposed a shocking antisemitic rot in Western democracies, including, sadly, here in Australia. This has resulted in an over 700 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents on Australia's soil since October 2023. Australians have witnessed an unchecked and unprecedented spike in antisemitic activity across our country, in our streets, in our synagogues and outside of people's homes. A synagogue was firebombed in Melbourne. A Jewish daycare centre was firebombed in Sydney. A car was firebombed outside the address of a prominent Jewish leader. Then, of course, a caravan full of explosives was found in suburban Sydney, with a map of prominent Jewish targets, including the Great Synagogue. As we know in this place and as we debated yesterday, had this attack occurred it would have been the most disastrous terrorist attack on Australian soil in history. The list goes on and on. Synagogues are being sprayed with swastika graffiti. People's homes, where they live and have the right like any other Australian to feel safe, have been attacked. Sadly, in my own home state of Western Australia, just last weekend there were incidents of disgusting antisemitic graffiti sprayed across walls, roads and street signs. According to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, there were 116 anti-Jewish incidents in Western Australia alone. Our community leaders have been left abandoned and disappointed with the lack of response from the Labor government. The Jewish Community Council of Western Australia Vice President Steve Lieblich said that the weak stance from the government emboldens those hate mongers and agitators who are stirring up the people prepared to take violent action. In conclusion, as we reflect on the immense loss of six million Jewish lives and countless other minorities during the Holocaust, one of history's darkest periods, unfortunately the lessons of 80 years ago must be relearned and we must find a way to stand together in this place to make sure that it does not happen again.
I too rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024. Here we go again, with Labor spending lots of money on Redbridge and other research...
I too rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024. Here we go again, with Labor spending lots of money on Redbridge and other research agencies to come up with these really trendy research driven titles that really bear no relationship to what is actually in the bill. Not only does that apply to Future Made in Australia, but one of the things those opposite have assiduously not spoken about is actually what the bill is about—that is, the production tax credits. We heard from Senator Pratt all about Peter Dutton and the nuclear energy issue, supposedly, in Collie, and about everything else except what this bill does and does not do. Future Made In Australia does sound good on the face of it, but this particular bill is about the production tax credits, and that's what I want to spend my time in this place talking about. Sadly, as to this bill, despite all of the rhetoric from those opposite—'This is going to help our critical minerals industry and our rare earths industry; this is going to fix all of the ills that currently bedevil the industries and now make it impossible for an Australian company, even when they find a critical mineral, a rare earth or any other commodity'—those opposite have now made things far worse, including with the Future Made in Australia—
Dental Health | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
I move: That the Senate take note of the explanation. Here we are again, at the start of a new parliamentary year, and we have had 18 months worth of the minister defying the will of the Senate...
I move: That the Senate take note of the explanation. Here we are again, at the start of a new parliamentary year, and we have had 18 months worth of the minister defying the will of the Senate and not providing the documents that the Senate requires on the NDIS. If only Labor had put in a fraction of the effort that they used to hide all of these documents from not only the Senate but Australians and NDIS participants, we may have got a much better outcome for the NDIS than what those opposite have delivered in the last 2½ years. They're a complete failure in this area, in terms of not just transparency but the mismanaging of this scheme. They're just trying to eke out their time after this terrible legislation was passed and after the hiding of the budget figures and all of these figures. They have just one strategy. It is a strategy to get them through to the next election. Then, surprise, surprise, whoever is the minister, whoever is in government, shock, horror, will have access to the documents they've hidden and will find out just what a farce they've been perpetrating. So now we've got a new minister, and have we got something new? Nope. We've still got the same old Redbridge research marketing lines that Bill Shorten, with his half-a-million-dollar speechwriter, was trotting out. What are we hearing again? We're hearing: 'We're cracking down on fraud. There are "green shoots". We're working with states and territories to deliver foundational supports.' Well, what a joke. What a joke, coming out here and repeating these lines yet again. I'll tell you what: this debacle that those opposite have perpetrated on NDIS participants and their families is so emblematic of the complete systemic failure of those opposite to govern and their complete lack of standards of effective governance. When it comes to real action on the NDIS, those opposite have done nothing. Remember, before the last election, when I was the NDIS minister, I came to this place and publicly said: 'This is a scheme in trouble. We have a sustainability issue. We have to tackle it.' I talked to the states and territories, and they were well on the journey to agreeing to having to do more. But Bill Shorten—'No, there's not a problem here. There's no sustainability problem. It's all Liberal lies.' And, three years ago, he refused to support proper legislative reform to put this scheme on a financially sustainable track for the future. Then he comes into government: 'Oh, my goodness me. I didn't understand what the budget documents said. I didn't understand any of this, and we've got a problem. We've got a sustainability problem.' Then what did he do? He did what Labor always does. They don't get in there and tackle the problem. He didn't say, 'Oops, I got it wrong.' He then had an 18 month-to-nearly-two-year review—another review—to tell us exactly what we already knew: this is a scheme in trouble. Now what have they done? They haven't come to an agreement with the states and territories, not a single one of them; yet they have pushed off billions of dollars worth of NDIS supports to states and territories in foundational supports. But guess what? The states and territories have not agreed to fund them. The states and territories haven't agreed to this at all. They haven't spent the last 2½ years doing new intergovernmental agreements with the states and territories. Now we hear—revealed on the weekend by the new minister, trotting out the same old lines—that they're now seeking a one-year pre-election bailout from states and territories to pay for the foundational supports that they should have been discussing with them! So this is it. We know from the figures that, despite all their talk of 'green shoots', this is still a scheme that is running out of control and well over the budget forecast. Total payments continue to increase due to two drivers of costs: participant numbers are still skyrocketing, despite everything those opposite have done, and the average payment per participant is still going up. Total payments are on track to exceed last year's total payments. Despite all of the rhetoric and all of the budget fudging that they have done, they're now coming to states and territories, saying: 'We 've stuffed this up. We couldn't get your agreement, but can you please give us enough money to get us through the next election?' Shame on you. (Time expired)
Australian Parliamentary Delegation to 149th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly | Delegation Reports | Senate debates
I seek leave to continue my remarks later. Leave granted.
by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 149th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, which took place from 13 to 18 October 2024. I seek leave to move a...
by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 149th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, which took place from 13 to 18 October 2024. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report. Leave granted. I move: That the Senate take note of the document. I seek leave to incorporate a tabling statement in Hansard. Leave granted. The statement read as follows— 149th IPU Assembly and Bilateral Visit to France—October 2024 Introduction r 149th Assembly Delegation activity The delegation was particularly active during this Assembly and the highlights of our contribution at the Assembly include: Committee on Democracy and Human Rights as well as her appointment as the President of the committee. The Australian delegation was active in a variety of other forums: Emergency debate and resolutions of the Assembly The Assembly held an emergency debate on the theme: Response by parliamentarians to the urgent plea by the UN Secretary-General to recommit to multilateralism for global peace, justice and sustainability. The debate culminating in a resolution on the same theme which calls on the international community, including the IPU membership, to end the "appalling impact of conflict on children" and take other action to protect vulnerable persons. The IPU membership also endorsed a resolution on the impact of artificial intelligence on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Amongst other things, the resolution calls upon parliaments to: ...effectively and transparently adopt or maintain strong legal frameworks and policies for the responsible creation, deployment and use of Al technology, and to contribute to efforts to establish global standards and frameworks. Multilateral and bilateral meeting The delegation held meetings and discussions with parliamentary delegations from Albania, India, Israel, New Zealand, Timor-Leste, Ukraine and Zambia as well as the World Health Organisation. Bilateral Visit to France National Assembly and Senate During our visit to France, the delegation was official received by Madam Yael Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly at Burbon Palace. The delegation met with Madam President alongside Ms Eleonore Caroit MP, Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the National Assembly. During the meeting, the strength of the bilateral relationship between the two parliaments was discussed. It was, therefore, most fitting that Mr Speaker was able to present an official Guest of Parliament invitation to Madam President on behalf of the Australian Parliament with a view to further strengthening these relationships. The delegation was also able to meet with Senator Lo"ic Herve, Vice President of the Senate, as well as Senator Florence Blatrix Contat, Chair of the France-Australia Friendship Group and Senator Georges Naturel, Senator for New Caledonia. At that meeting, the longstanding relationship between the two nations was highlighted and Mr Speaker presented the official Guest of Parliament invitation to the Vice President. Exchange of information regarding the Olympics The delegation met with Mr Pierre Rabadan, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Game and the Seine as well as Mr r Etienne Thobois, General Director of the Paris Organising Committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. During both meetings, the delegation was informed of the lessons learned from the Paris Olympics including the importance of integrating social initiatives into project planning for the Olympics. In the afternoon of 18 October, the delegation travelled to the Arch de Triomphe where Mr Speaker lay a wreath on behalf of the Parliament and people of Australia at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was an honour for the delegation that Mr Speaker was then able to participate in the rekindling of the flame ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of the Australian people. Acknowledgements Arab Emirates, o Her Excellency Ms Amanda Gorley, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament, in Geneva, o Her Excellency Ms Emily Roper, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and o Her Excellency Ms Gillian Bird PSM, Ambassador to France. I'm delighted to present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to the 149th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly held in Geneva from 13 to 17 October, followed by a bilateral visit to France from 17 to 18 October this year. The delegation was most ably led by the Speaker, the Hon. Milton Dick MP. The delegation comprised me, Senator O'Neill, the Hon. Warren Entsch and Mr Graham Perrett. I think that, on reflection, this delegation and the work that this delegation has done over the course of this parliament absolutely demonstrates the power of parliamentary diplomacy. There are a number of things I want to highlight to that effect. The delegation was particularly active during this assembly. One of the many highlights of the contributions of all delegation members included Mr Speaker's appointment as Chairperson of the Sub-Committee on Finance for the IPU. In that capacity he presented the IPU financial report to the executive committee, to the IPU governing council and also to various geopolitical groups. Senator O'Neill was appointed to the Bureau of the Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights, as well as her appointment as the president of that committee. I congratulate her most heartily for that. It is a very significant appointment. The advancement of my own work on orphanage trafficking proceeded very pleasingly, again, during this assembly. I secured the agreement of the Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights to debate the implementation of the 2023 IPU resolution on orphanage trafficking that I was rapporteur for and took through the assembly over the course of 12 months. The Australian delegation was also active in a variety of other IPU forums. Mr Speaker participated in meetings of the IPU Executive Committee as a member of that committee and as the chairperson of its subcommittee on finance. Senator O'Neill also moderated a panel on the debate 'On a fair global financial system' for the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development and participated in the work of the committee to promote respect for international humanitarian law as a member of that committee. Again, I also congratulate Senator O'Neill for her initiative—not only did she facilitate that debate but it was her initiative, which was very well received by many countries across many geographic political groups at the IPU. I also served as a panellist at a workshop on combating child labour and participated in a forum of women as a member of its bureau. Mr Perrett, at his first assembly, served on the IPU emergency item drafting committee. I'm also now rapporteur for the next IPU on a two-party solution in the Middle East, which I have no doubt will be challenging to say the least. The emergency debate and the resolution of the assembly this time was a response by parliamentarians to the urgent plea by the UN Secretary-General to recommit to multilateralism for global peace, justice and also sustainability. The debate culminated in a resolution on the same theme, which calls on the international community, including the IPU membership, to end the appalling impact of conflict on children and also take other action to protect vulnerable people. In relation to the bilateral visit to France, during our visit to France, the delegation was officially received by the President of the National Assembly at the Bourbon palace, and we met with many other parliamentarians across both chambers. We also met with Mr Pierre Rabadan, who is the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were, again, so successful. We learnt many lessons from that. Probably the most significant one for all of us was on the afternoon of 18 October. The delegation had the great privilege of travelling to the Arc de Triomphe, where Mr Speaker laid a wreath at their equivalent of the last post ceremony, and we all participated in what was an incredibly moving ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. On behalf of the Australian delegation, there are many people to thank—the Parliamentary Library for their brilliant briefing documents yet again and also the ambassadors both in Geneva and Paris and all of their staff who provided us great support. Thank you.