Kate Thwaites's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2026-02-10T22:05:33+00:00
items: Jagajaga Electorate: Australia Day Honours and Awards, Geary, Mr Mick | Adjournment | House debates
items: Victoria: Bushfires | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: g125.1
items: Energy | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Health Care | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
items: VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: g109.8
items: g109.1
items: Cybersafety | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Housing | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: National Anti-Corruption Commission Joint Committee; Report | Committees | House debates
items: Bellomo, Professor Rinaldo, AO, Middle East | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Address-in-Reply | Governor-General's Speech | House debates
items: Jagajaga Electorate: Infrastructure | Grievance Debate | House debates
items: Climate Change, Murphy, Ms Peta Jan | Adjournment | House debates

Jagajaga Electorate: Australia Day Honours and Awards, Geary, Mr Mick | Adjournment | House debates
type: item
description: My community of Jagajaga is home to some truly remarkable people. It is a place shaped by volunteers, health professionals, educators, advocates and community leaders. These are people who...
encoded: My community of Jagajaga is home to some truly remarkable people. It is a place shaped by volunteers, health professionals, educators, advocates and community leaders. These are people who quietly and consistently give their time and expertise to make life better for others. Each year our community is proud to see locals from Jagajaga recognised in the Australia Day Honours, and it's a privilege to acknowledge these individuals in this parliament. They do deserve to be recognised nationally. This year, Marcus Wigan AM has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his significant service to engineering, road safety and tertiary education. Marcus is someone I interact with frequently who takes a strong interest in policy, and I always appreciate our discussions. Jeffrey Borland AO has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to business as a labour market economist, to tertiary education, to microeconomic research and to public policy development. Ann Congleton PSM has been awarded the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service in policy and service design, corporate resources management and operational service delivery. I had the pleasure of working with Ann at what was then the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, and I know firsthand the care she has for our communities and people who need support. Our congratulations to all our recipients. Your commitment, leadership and service are inspiring, and your work does make a real difference to our community and to our country. I also want to acknowledge the many people in Jagajaga whose contributions do not come with formal recognition but are very important. We have people who are volunteering and people who through their vocations help to strengthen the fabric of our community every day. I am looking forward to recognising many more of these efforts at my annual Jagajaga Volunteer Awards in March. I also support broader efforts for us to contin…
date: 2026-02-10T19:35:00+00:00

Victoria: Bushfires | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: This is an important motion, and it is important that we commemorate one of the darkest days in our state of Victoria. Black Saturday was a day of terror. It was a day when too many lives were...
encoded: This is an important motion, and it is important that we commemorate one of the darkest days in our state of Victoria. Black Saturday was a day of terror. It was a day when too many lives were lost. It was a day that many people still deal with the consequences of. It was something that has changed forever how we look at bushfires not just in Victoria but right around this country. On Black Saturday, 173 lives were lost and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed. Whole communities and towns were changed forever. People, families, neighbours, communities and lives were torn apart in a matter of hours. For those of us in Victoria, especially across Melbourne's north and north-east, Black Saturday is still not something that we remember at a distance. It is something that we vividly hold and that many people still carry. In my community of Jagajaga, many families have direct links to the communities that were devastated—Kinglake, Marysville, Strathewen, St Andrews and beyond. Many people locally were in the CFA crews and the emergency services who were on the front line that day. Some lost loved ones, some lost homes, and some lost the places that of course have shaped who they were. As I said, many are still carrying that trauma today. Today, to the survivors, the families of those who died, the firefighters, the emergency workers, the volunteers and the community members who stood in the face of that unimaginable danger: we as a parliament honour you. We remember not only what was lost but the courage that you showed and what has emerged from the ashes. The events of Black Saturday have fundamentally changed the way we understand bushfire risk in Australia. We have in fact changed the way we talk about emergency management and the way we build, plan and prepare. As someone who, in an earlier life, was a journalist who spent some time training with our CFA crews and who has spent some time on the frontline on firefighting, I can say that the messages that went out prior…
date: 2026-02-09T17:53:00+00:00

g125.1
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title: Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025, Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
description: This debate goes to the very heart of what kind of country we want to be. It's not just a conversation about universities, about commissions or, indeed, about funding models. It is a conversation...
encoded: This debate goes to the very heart of what kind of country we want to be. It's not just a conversation about universities, about commissions or, indeed, about funding models. It is a conversation about opportunity, about fairness and about the future of young people in our communities. For generations, education has been an important driver of social mobility in Australia. It is how children from families across the country become doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists, nurses, social workers and leaders. It strengthens our community, it helps our economy grow, and it makes sure that we have people working in the industries that we need. Despite its importance, our government is very aware that, for too many Australians, higher education does still feel out of reach. Cost-of-living pressures, rising rents, insecure work and student debt make university feel like a risk instead of the opportunity that it can be, and that is why these reforms matter. Because Labor understands that tertiary education is not a luxury. It is nation-building infrastructure. Labor understands that investing in skills today is how we secure prosperity tomorrow. Labor understands that education changes not just individual lives but whole communities. The universities accord, which our government developed, is a blueprint for a stronger and fairer Australia, and these bills that we have before us—the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 and the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025—give that blueprint a permanent institutional foundation. They establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission as a steward of our tertiary system—a body that will ensure our system is fair, coordinated, forward looking and focused on people—not just providers. As I mentioned, our government commissioned the universities accord because we knew that the higher education system really is the bed…
date: 2026-02-09T16:46:00+00:00

Energy | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is the Albanese Labor government working with households to modernise and rebuild our energy grid after a decade of neglect?
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is the Albanese Labor government working with households to modernise and rebuild our energy grid after a decade of neglect?
date: 2026-02-09T14:48:00+00:00

Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: It is a privilege to rise to speak on this motion because it is fundamental to what this government is about and to what Labor governments are about. At its heart, it's about how we regard being...
encoded: It is a privilege to rise to speak on this motion because it is fundamental to what this government is about and to what Labor governments are about. At its heart, it's about how we regard being Australian—that access to quality universal health care which Labor governments always stand up for. On that note, it was disingenuous of the member for Forrest to say things have in fact got worse under this government. What has happened under this government is we have reversed the freefall in Medicare bulk-billing that was happening under those opposite. We have opened Medicare urgent care clinics right around this country. Those opposite did not do that. They did not offer this opportunity for walk-in, bulk-billed care in our communities. In fact, in my community we now have two Medicare urgent care clinics. Just recently, over summer, a new clinic opened in Eltham, providing fully bulk-billed treatment for non-life threatening illnesses and injuries without the long waits people too often face in emergency departments. That joins the one we had existing in Heidelberg, on Burgundy Street, which has supported thousands of locals since it opened in 2022. I see this firsthand in my community—parents of young children who otherwise knew they were in for a long wait at an emergency department after, perhaps, an injury at a sporting event, and elderly people who feel like they just need to be seen and can't get into their regular GP at that time. This clinic is providing all those people and others with support and care they never had before, and it is providing it because this Albanese Labor government believes in Medicare, because we are funding Medicare in our communities. One local, Riana, shared her experience with me, saying she went to the clinic when her daughter was in severe pain. She described the staff there as welcoming and compassionate, and the doctor as knowledgeable, and said the care helped to ease her daughter's pain. For her, the relief was finding the clin…
date: 2026-02-09T10:45:00+00:00

Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
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description: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
encoded: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
date: 2026-02-09T10:35:00+00:00

Health Care | Constituency Statements | House debates
type: item
description: Access to health care is top of mind for people in my community of Jagajaga. We're fortunate to be home to some of Melbourne's best medical institutions, including the Austin, the Repat, the ONJ,...
encoded: Access to health care is top of mind for people in my community of Jagajaga. We're fortunate to be home to some of Melbourne's best medical institutions, including the Austin, the Repat, the ONJ, the Mercy and many more. Local health care matters, and that's why investing in local services and strengthening Medicare locally is so important for my community. Because for the families, the seniors and the young people I represent, access to affordable health care is not a luxury; it is essential. That is why this government, the Albanese Labor government, has put people and access at the heart of our reforms to strengthen Medicare, and it's why we are already seeing a difference in communities in Jagajaga. For the first time in decades, we are making bulk-billing viable again after it was allowed to languish under those opposite. We have expanded the bulk-billing incentives for GPs so that these incentives apply across the board, encouraging more GPs to make sure that people can see the doctor for a bulk-billed visit. We are seeing this have an effect in Jagajaga. More practices in Jagajaga are now bulk-billing patients, and I'm encouraging even more of our local GP clinics to take up this incentive so that this becomes the norm rather than the exception. I recently visited Greensborough Medical & Dental Centre in Greensborough, which is one of our wonderful local practices and was one of the first clinics in our community to switch to full bulk-billing for GP visits. It was really heartening to talk to Alicia, the practice manager there, who told me that every day she is seeing how this change is making life easier for local families. People are not having to choose what in their budget they have to take out to pay to see a GP, and that is how it should be in Australia. That is how health care works in Australia. It is why Labor set up Medicare, and it is why we continue to strengthen and back Medicare. So, as I said, I encourage more GP practices across Jagajaga to t…
date: 2026-02-05T09:33:00+00:00

Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
type: item
description: Nothing we say today can end the pain of the Jewish people whose lives were upended by the Bondi terror attack. Nothing we do can bring back the 15 people who were killed, people should have had...
encoded: Nothing we say today can end the pain of the Jewish people whose lives were upended by the Bondi terror attack. Nothing we do can bring back the 15 people who were killed, people should have had more—more time, more life, more moments with those who now face the bleakness of a future without them. Those moments were stolen, and they were stolen by people who were driven by hatred and by antisemitism, who designed their act of terror to spread fear and to test our trust and our faith in one another as Australians. That is why our words today matter: we are also saying that we will not allow that to happen. I extend my deepest condolences and those of my community in Melbourne to the families and friends of those killed and who are suffering. To all of those people whose lives will never be the same, today we acknowledge that and we grieve for you. I extend our thanks to the first responders: to the police, paramedics, firefighters, nurses, doctors and everyday civilians who acted with courage, professionalism and compassion in the most difficult of circumstances. Their care and their bravery saved lives and provided reassurance in moments of fear and plain terror. At this difficult time, they remind us that our communities are filled with people who value and support each other—not only those who seek to spread hate and terror. This was an antisemitic and deeply hateful attack on our Jewish community, and it has shaken people's sense of safety and belonging. It is confronting, it is unacceptable and it has caused real fear and distress well beyond Bondi. People are shaken, they are angry and they are grieving, and rightly so. At this moment, it matters that we are clear-eyed, that we stand with the Jewish community and that we don't look away or soften the truth of what has occurred. It is also important that those of us in this place who are given the task of leadership do this with respect for each other and respect for our communities in this place and outside. It…
date: 2026-01-19T16:47:00+00:00

VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: As I was saying, in my community I certainly know that these skills are very much valued, and the investment in TAFEs is very much valued. We are fortunate to have Melbourne Polytechnic campuses...
encoded: As I was saying, in my community I certainly know that these skills are very much valued, and the investment in TAFEs is very much valued. We are fortunate to have Melbourne Polytechnic campuses in both Greensborough and West Heidelberg. I've visited these many times, and I often hear from students about the quality of the education and support they receive. The Centre of Excellence at Melbourne Polytechnic's West Heidelberg campus is already upskilling locals in Jagajaga and across Melbourne in critical and emerging industries. This includes targeted training in affordable and environmentally sustainable construction techniques. I was talking earlier about how our investment is helping to fill skills shortages, and this is really about us using these skills and using this investment, not just to give young people and other people the skills and training they need but also to deliver on our national housing needs, which is obviously especially timely given the significant housing investments we are making. By allowing these students at these facilities in my electorate and, as I said, right around Australia to defer the cost of their tuition until they earn a sufficient income, this program opens the door to opportunities for thousands of Australians every year. Without it, many would not be able to study at all and our businesses and communities would lose the benefits of a skilled and qualified workforce. That is why this bill and the broader work we are doing are so important in making sure we have a system that operates in a strong, transparent way and is set up to deliver for our country now and into the future. So I'm really pleased that this bill is fixing a technical issue that arose from the transition between the two loan schemes, providing students and providers with the certainty they deserve. But I'm also really pleased that as a government we are putting such a focus on skills and training. I get to see frequently, as I said, what a difference that mak…
date: 2025-11-25T18:14:00+00:00

VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: The VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025 addresses a technical but important issue in the administration of our vocational education loan system. It ensures that students,...
encoded: The VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025 addresses a technical but important issue in the administration of our vocational education loan system. It ensures that students, training providers and the government all have the clarity and confidence that they deserve in the operation of the VET Student Loans program. This is a responsible and necessary measure that fixes a problem identified during a review. It provides certainty to the sector, and it strengthens the integrity of a system that supports tens of thousands of Australians to gain new skills and qualifications. Vocational education is a highly valued resource in my community, and much of this important work to upskill workers is happening in north-eastern Melbourne, in my electorate of Jagajaga, thanks to some really important investments from our Labor government. Income-contingent student loans for vocational education and training students were first introduced under the Rudd Labor government in 2008 under the VET FEE-HELP scheme. That allowed VET providers to handle student tax file numbers, as those identifiers are essential to linking students' loans with their Australian Taxation Office accounts. In 2017, the VET Student Loans program replaced the VET FEE-HELP scheme. It brought in stronger integrity requirements and a new legislative framework: the VET Student Loans Act 2016. However, the new legislation did not explicitly provide a role for VSL providers to handle tax file numbers, even though the IT systems that supported the program continued to operate as they had under the previous framework. During a review of the program, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations identified this misalignment between the legislation and the technology platforms that manage loan applications and data. This bill ensures that the law will now match what has occurred in practice. It retrospectively authorises the handling of students' tax file numbers by approved VSL providers for the pur…
date: 2025-11-25T18:14:00+00:00

g109.8
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title: Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, Environment Information Australia Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Excise Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (General Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
description: The member is clearly a little embarrassed about what is happening under his party at the moment. It seems unlikely that they will learn from these mistakes of the past and reverse direction. In...
encoded: The member is clearly a little embarrassed about what is happening under his party at the moment. It seems unlikely that they will learn from these mistakes of the past and reverse direction. In fact, it looks like his colleagues are walking away from net zero. I understand that's probably a shame for the member for Goldstein, but he does not currently have the numbers, it seems. Good luck to him in his efforts to get them. Since 2022 our government has turned the page on that track record. We have passed strong laws to cut emissions and put Australia on the path to net zero by 2050, including strong 2035 reduction targets to get us there. We've committed to achieving 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030, with more than 100 clean energy projects already underway. We've protected 95 million hectares of Australian land and ocean, an area almost the size of Germany, Italy and Norway combined. We've expanded marine parks around Macquarie Island and the Heard and McDonald islands. We've established Environment Information Australia, giving the public and business easier access to transparent environmental data. We've doubled funding for our national parks, including Kakadu and Uluru. We've invested $1.3 billion to expand the Indigenous Rangers Program, delivered $600 million to protect threatened species, and created the world's first nature repair market, unlocking private investment in environmental restoration. It is a strong record, but we know there is more to do, and that is why this bill is before the House. These reforms are the product of one of the most extensive consultation processes ever undertaken in the environmental policy space. As I said before, I want to pay tribute to the individuals, environment groups and business groups—the stakeholders—who have all engaged constructively in that process. Minister Watt and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water have conducted more than 100 meetings, forums and roundtables across the cou…
date: 2025-11-04T19:14:00+00:00

g109.1
type: item
title: Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, Environment Information Australia Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Excise Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (General Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
description: This is a landmark piece of legislation that represents the most significant overhaul of Australia's environmental laws in a generation. It is overdue. After our environment was neglected,...
encoded: This is a landmark piece of legislation that represents the most significant overhaul of Australia's environmental laws in a generation. It is overdue. After our environment was neglected, ignored and left to degrade by those opposite, this is work that Labor attempted in our last term but that we could not get opposition or Greens support for in the Senate. We are now meeting the commitment we made—I certainly made this commitment to many of my constituents prior to the last election—to bring back to the parliament new laws to protect the environment. Our Labor government understands how critical these laws are, for our environment and the precious places and species we must protect and for the certainty needed by business and those looking to make necessary developments. While this bill, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, very clearly demonstrates that the Labor government understands the need to protect our environment and pass these laws, I'm yet to be convinced that those opposite understand it. These are some of the questions on my mind right now: Will the Leader of the Opposition stand up for our environment? Will she demonstrate her party's new-found capacity to listen, to learn the hard lessons and reflect the Australia from which they have become disconnected? Will she listen to Graeme Samuel—who she commissioned to do the report that these laws are based on—to Ken Henry or to the businesses urging her to support reform? Will the Greens political party finally join the government and pass these reforms to protect our environment, or will they once again hold out for the perfect and scupper the good? I want to pay tribute to the many groups and individuals who have campaigned hard for these reforms for many years, who have made and continue to make informed contributions. These are the people who understand the importance of getting this done. I just hope that the opposition and the Greens political party do too. This bill builds on the Albanese L…
date: 2025-11-04T19:14:00+00:00

Energy | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Treasurer. Why is reliable energy so important to Australia's economy, and how does that compare to other approaches?
encoded: My question is to the Treasurer. Why is reliable energy so important to Australia's economy, and how does that compare to other approaches?
date: 2025-11-04T14:25:00+00:00

Cybersafety | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: There are some important changes coming up soon as a result of our government's reform to make children safer online. I want to take this opportunity to talk about what these changes mean for...
encoded: There are some important changes coming up soon as a result of our government's reform to make children safer online. I want to take this opportunity to talk about what these changes mean for parents, guardians and, of course, young people across our community and the country. From December, social media platforms will be required to prevent Australians under 16 from creating or keeping social media accounts. This is something that is of huge interest to many communities, including those in Jagajaga, and I want to take this opportunity to speak directly to parents and young people in our community. Firstly, what is actually changing? Social media platforms will have to ensure under-16s cannot hold accounts. Children will still be able to view some public content, but they won't have full accounts and platforms will be held accountable if they don't apply these changes. This is a change that is about safety and responsibility. It's about making sure that we are not taking childhood away from young people, who should be protected. It really comes about because there has been a failure of the social media platforms to do this properly—to take their social responsibility seriously. We have essentially allowed them to conduct a giant social experiment, and at many points they have shown that they did not take social responsibility seriously, and we have seen the consequences of that. It's not unusual for government to step in and regulate if we see an industry that's doing harm to young people. We've done it with alcohol and we've done it with tobacco, and now we're doing it with social media. Importantly, under-16s or their parents will not be fined or penalised if they use or allow the use of a platform. The responsibility for this lies on the platforms, as it should. I want to pay tribute to the parents across the country who have campaigned for this change, and I know that they've campaigned because their children have been affected in ways that they absolutely shoul…
date: 2025-11-03T10:39:00+00:00

Housing | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to back first home buyers and build more homes? What is...
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to back first home buyers and build more homes? What is standing in the way?
date: 2025-10-08T14:48:00+00:00

National Anti-Corruption Commission Joint Committee; Report | Committees | House debates
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description: by leave—I present the following reports of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Anti-Corruption Commission of the 47th Parliament: Examination of the Inspector of the National...
encoded: by leave—I present the following reports of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Anti-Corruption Commission of the 47th Parliament: Examination of the Inspector of the National Anti-Corruption Commission annual report 2023-24 and Examination of the National Anti-Corruption Commission annual report 2023-24. Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e). by leave—These two reports from the 47th Parliament represent a significant body of work by the former committee, particularly under the stewardship of the former chair, Senator Karen Grogan. I want to thank the committee for that work. It is a committee that plays an important role in oversight and supporting Australians' confidence in the commission's work. I look forward to continuing this important work as the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Anti-Corruption Commission in this parliament.
date: 2025-10-08T10:24:00+00:00

Bellomo, Professor Rinaldo, AO, Middle East | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: I rise to pay tribute to Professor Rinaldo Bellomo AO after his death in May this year. Professor Ronaldo was a director of intensive care research at Austin Health in Heidelberg. He was a giant...
encoded: I rise to pay tribute to Professor Rinaldo Bellomo AO after his death in May this year. Professor Ronaldo was a director of intensive care research at Austin Health in Heidelberg. He was a giant in Australian and global intensive care medicine—the most published and most cited medical researcher in the history of Australian medicine. Professor Rinaldo arrived in Australia from Italy in 1980, completed his medical degree at Monash University and earned his PhD from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He became a professor at Monash University, where his passion for research and teaching shaped generations of clinicians and scientists. In 2018, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to intensive care medicine as a biomedical scientist, researcher and systems innovator. He once said that his life's work wasn't just about finding answers but about having conversations with patients, students and fellow clinicians, rooted in humility and empathy. He said: 'Patients are not just cases; they are people with stories. The privilege of being a doctor is being invited into those stories, sometimes at their most vulnerable point, and trying to help.' I know he is very much missed by the community of Austin Hospital, and our community and our country are grateful for his immense contributions. Vale, Professor Rinaldo Bellomo AO. I continue to be contacted by many people in my community who are deeply distressed by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I share their horror. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel's denial of aid, the killing of civilians, including children, as they seek access to water and food, is indefensible. The Australian government has called on Israel to comply immediately with its obligations under international law. This includes ensuring that the United Nations and NGOs can carry out their life-saving work safely and without obstruction. As the Prime Minister said: … it is a breach of…
date: 2025-09-02T16:44:00+00:00

Address-in-Reply | Governor-General's Speech | House debates
type: item
description: It's an absolute privilege and an honour to be here once again as the member for Jagajaga, and I am sincerely grateful and humbled to once again be trusted by my community to represent them in...
encoded: It's an absolute privilege and an honour to be here once again as the member for Jagajaga, and I am sincerely grateful and humbled to once again be trusted by my community to represent them in this parliament. I've said many times that I love our community. It is the place where I grew up, and it's now the place where I'm bringing up my own children with my husband, Daniel. We absolutely know firsthand just how special our part of Melbourne is. The people who live there, the community groups, the parks, the creeks—there is a strong sense of belonging and connection in Jagajaga, and it makes it a wonderful place to call home. Every day I absolutely take pride in the opportunity to be our community's voice here in this parliament. I was really pleased with the conversations I was able to have with community members during the election campaign. A lot of people spoke to me, both about what they could see our government had achieved in our one term in government and also about the progress they wanted to see come next—about the work still to do. There was a marked difference in those conversations I had in the community between the sense of trust they had in a Labor government to deliver on that work still to come and what was being put forward by our Liberal opponents—which really was an agenda based around negativity, an agenda that clearly wasn't well thought through, particularly if we think about their main plan of a nuclear future for Australia. It's an agenda which showed they really don't understand the lives of modern Australians and of people in communities like Jagajaga. I'm thinking here particularly of the way they wanted to limit things like working from home. It was clear to me when I was talking to people, whether it was at early voting centres or when I was knocking on doors or standing outside the local shops, that what they valued were the things that Labor governments do, and they were trusting us to get on and do those things and to build for the fu…
date: 2025-08-27T17:44:00+00:00

Jagajaga Electorate: Infrastructure | Grievance Debate | House debates
type: item
description: I'm very aware that we're all here in this parliament because we hold a deep sense of responsibility to our communities and to our electorates, and, for me, that responsibility is really clear. I...
encoded: I'm very aware that we're all here in this parliament because we hold a deep sense of responsibility to our communities and to our electorates, and, for me, that responsibility is really clear. I do want to improve my community. I want to make it the best place for people to live, work, study and raise a family. I am really proud that, since we've been in government, Labor has been both building our nation and also building our communities, investing in communities like those in Jagajaga, which, unfortunately, were neglected for far too long under previous Liberal-National governments. When those opposite were in power, they put themselves first. They, in fact, allocated community funding in ways that benefited their own seats. That meant, in Jagajaga, that our community missed out on major infrastructure funding, on school upgrades, on sporting and community facilities and on much more. I stood in this place at the time, when then prime minister Scott Morrison led a Liberal-National government, and I called out that government for their unfair treatment of my constituents. Between 2018 and 2021, the then treasurer and member for Kooyong's neighbouring electorates received $5.7 million in community grants while my community just over the river in Jagajaga received just $800,000. That is more than seven times less, and it is absolutely indicative of how those opposite treated running the country. They were not in it for communities. They were certainly not in it for the community of Jagajaga. They were governing for themselves. Labor does take a different approach. We believe that every community—city or regional, no matter who they voted for—deserves respect and deserves its fair share, and I'm really proud of what that means and what we're delivering in Jagajaga. When we come to people's health, one of the key things that people talk to me about is the need for good quality healthcare services that can be accessed locally and that are affordable. We absolutely unde…
date: 2025-08-26T12:59:00+00:00

Climate Change, Murphy, Ms Peta Jan | Adjournment | House debates
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description: Thank you, Speaker. It is a real pleasure to see you back in your role. It's a privilege for me to be back in this place as the member for Jagajaga. This is now my third opening of a parliament,...
encoded: Thank you, Speaker. It is a real pleasure to see you back in your role. It's a privilege for me to be back in this place as the member for Jagajaga. This is now my third opening of a parliament, and while I don't yet think I'm at the nostalgia stage, the ceremony and the first speeches of the past few days have certainly prompted some reflections for me. I have in particular been thinking about one of the things that was a huge prompt for me to first stand for parliament, and that is the need for us to urgently tackle the climate crisis. When I first ran for parliament we were well into the decade of Liberal-National climate denial. It was a time when Scott Morrison brought his lump-of-coal prop into question time. At that time for me—and I think for many Australians—thinking about the need for climate action and the lack of it under successive Liberal-National governments could make you tend towards despair. The denial of successive Liberal-National governments meant we were drifting further and further away from the actions that needed to be taken. In general, I am not someone who tends to lean into despair. I try to lean towards hope. A lot of that hope for me was realised in our first term in government. As a government we have been—and we are—working hard to recover the lost time and the lost opportunities, and we are making real progress. Labor is the party of climate action. We've legislated a 2030 emissions reduction target. We've locked in our commitment to net zero by 2050. We're investing heavily in clean energy projects. Since coming to office we've approved a record number of clean energy projects, and we're now at a stage where we're powering homes across the nation. From 1 July we launched our Cheaper Home Batteries Program, providing a 30 per cent discount on battery systems. We're scaling up climate adaptation, investing in disaster preparedness—all of this work that I am pleased with and looking forward to getting stuck into supporting in my role a…
date: 2025-07-23T19:55:00+00:00