Michelle Ananda-Rajah's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Allen, Dr Katrina Jane (Katie) | Condolences | Senate debates
I pay tribute to Dr Katie Allen and her life of exemplary public service. Katie's long career of service began first in medicine and research. Many people have asked me whether I knew Katie just...
I pay tribute to Dr Katie Allen and her life of exemplary public service. Katie's long career of service began first in medicine and research. Many people have asked me whether I knew Katie just because I was a doctor. I just want to clear this up now. I really didn't, because Katie was a paediatric doctor, and I was an adult doctor. In medicine, there's a professional and cultural firewall between these two disciplines. There shouldn't be, but there is. I actually learned the most about Katie sadly at her unbelievable memorial service. People will be talking about this memorial service for years to come. Seeing was believing. When I listened to the eulogies from people who knew her well, all I could think about was relentless service and excellence in each of those chapters of her life, as Senator Sharma said. I think, honestly, she set a new benchmark for the rest of us on how to live a good life—a benchmark which I think is unattainable for me, certainly. She was a consultant paediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital for nearly 30 years and a leading researcher and academic, holding senior roles at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, including as division head for population health and director of the Centre for Food Allergy Research. She also held professional appointments at the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the University of Manchester and authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications—an extraordinary output. Her research helped change how paediatric food allergy is understood and managed. Particularly pioneering was the establishment of the HealthNuts study, which was the first population-based epidemiological study that accurately measured food allergy in infants. It turns out that Australia—Melbourne—is the food allergy capital of the world, thanks to Katie's groundbreaking research. Katie then stepped into political life, serving as the member for Higgins from 2019 to 2022. During my own time as the member for Higgins it was clear that she was respected and well-loved and was seen as an active local member. Constituents widely respected her and said to me, so many times that I lost count, how much they admired her principled stance on what was then a very controversial move—when she crossed the floor on the Religious Discrimination Bill. The constituents of Higgins are a highly informed and educated group of people, and they knew exactly what that meant—the significance of it—and they paid tribute to her for her courage. During her political term, Katie advocated strongly on behalf of the rebuilt and now absolutely state-of-the-art Very Special Kids, in Malvern. This facility really is a benchmark for the rest of Australia. There are only two or three palliative care facilities for children in Australia, compared to more than 60 in the UK. This is something I learnt thanks to Katie's advocacy. Katie of course built on the incredible legacy of the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer, who was instrumental in refurbishing and rebuilding Very Special Kids. Katie also championed better care for people affected by eating disorders, including as an ambassador for Eating Disorders Families Australia. There is now, thanks to her advocacy, an eating disorders clinic in Armadale, run by Alfred Health, my old workplace. It's funny, right, the sync? To Katie's husband, Malcolm, and her four children—Monty, Jemima, Arabella and Archie—and all those who loved her, I extend my deepest condolences and acknowledge her contributions across medicine, research and parliamentary service. Hers was a life well lived but taken too soon. Vale Dr Katie Allen.
Education, Waste Management and Recycling | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
This week, school gates have swung open across the country. Families are back to that familiar rhythm. This moment always feels like a reset, but it's also a reminder of something deeper:...
This week, school gates have swung open across the country. Families are back to that familiar rhythm. This moment always feels like a reset, but it's also a reminder of something deeper: education isn't one stage of life; it's the thread that runs through it. From early childhood, through primary and secondary school and on to vocational training and university, education is foundational to lifelong learning. As students head back into school, we recognise the scale of the work underway to lift outcomes and ensure that no child is left behind. Through the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, we have, with the states and territories, made the biggest new investment in public schools ever—$16½ billion over 10 years. This funding is not a blank cheque but is linked directly to practical changes that make a difference: year 1 phonics and numeracy checks, because you want to identify problems early so that you can intervene most impactfully; evidence based learning and teaching, such as more individualised supports like small group tutoring so students can catch up and keep up; greater wellbeing support—parents have been crying out for greater mental health support for students, and we're providing it through counsellors, wellbeing coordinators and mental health workers—initiatives that help attract and retain teachers and school leaders, including rewarding and recognising experienced teachers, as they are a national asset; and providing professional development for teachers through free online courses in areas such as phonics, STEM, leadership, explicit teaching and classroom management. You can go and check these out online. They're run by the University of Adelaide. These changes, driven by a $16½ billion investment in public education, won't just succeed on paper; they will succeed in classrooms, delivered by teachers. There is positive news here: more Australians are choosing teaching. Say it from the rooftops! More Australians are choosing teaching. There is no more important job in the world than being a teacher. A teacher has the ability to change the trajectory of a child's life. Every Australian, no matter their age, remembers one or two teachers in their childhood who had an impact in their life; I certainly do. In that regard, they are social engineers and should be revered by us, thanked more often than just on 5 October, on World Teachers Day, and treated with the utmost respect. Since 2023 there has been year-on-year growth in applications to study teaching. Those increases in 2024 and then in 2025 mean that we now have more teachers in the pipeline. New data shows applications to study undergraduate teaching for 2026 are up 6½ per cent and domestic university offers are up 6.3 per cent. That matters. It has happened because this Albanese Labor government has backed in aspiring students with practical support, including Commonwealth teaching scholarships worth up to $40,000 and Commonwealth paid prac so teaching students aren't forced to choose between completing their placements and paying their rent. This has been taken up, by the way, by 56,000 students from teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. These are workers who are essential to the functioning of our economy. Education ministers have agreed to progress work on a new Australian teaching and learning commission to ensure that our national effort is coordinated. We are undertaking keyhole surgery on the maths curriculum in the first three years of school. Those are formative years, and it's important that we get those foundations in numeracy and literacy right, because they shape everything else that follows. We are also revising the national teacher standards. These standards outline what makes up quality teaching. These will be reviewed for the first time in 15 years. This is an important opportunity to reflect on what modern teaching is and how we best support it. This is nation-building stuff. While seeing more Australians take up teaching is great, we realise that retention remains an issue. Thirty-nine per cent of teachers intend to leave the profession before retirement. It's at an all-time high, and something has got to give. This is why we are investing in reducing burdensome paperwork through the Workload Reduction Fund. This fund enables the states and territories to pilot new approaches to reduce teacher workloads and to maximise their valuable time in the classroom with face-to-face contact with children. And we are investing in teacher welfare through programs such as Be You with Beyond Blue, which provides tools and resources for educators to create supportive communities for both students and educators. When we talk about education, we're talking about the long arc of life. We're talking about the early childhood educator who helps a child find their voice, the teacher who notices a student slipping behind and turns it around, the TAFE teacher guiding apprentices who will build our homes and energy infrastructure, and teachers helping students become the thinkers, artists and innovators we will be relying on heavily in the decades ahead. Building a better Australia starts with making sure every child in every community has access to a quality education that puts them on a pathway to a better future. How our plastic waste is recycled is big business for Circular Plastics Australia, based in Altona. This world-first collaboration between Asahi, Coca-Cola, Pact Group and Cleanaway recycles 20,000 tonnes of plastic per year, but it needs more. Plastic bottles come from across the country from as far as WA but also from places like Vanuatu. Why? It's because Australians are not returning enough plastic for recycling. Plastic container returns of around 70 per cent in the last quarter of 2025 mean that 30 per cent has gone missing, likely gone to landfill. We need to put our plastics into our recycling bins or, in Victoria, use the container deposit scheme. What I saw was genuinely impressive, a true closed-loop process. Used plastic bottles are sorted by an infrared scanner, shredded into flakes, washed and extruded into thin filaments and chopped into tiny pellets for reuse. These pellets are turned into test tube like moulds, which are then blown into new food-grade plastic bottles. The wider problem of plastic waste is sobering. This is why the Albanese government has invested $1 billion with the states and territories in the Recycling Modernisation Fund. More than 50 new and upgraded recycling infrastructure projects have been completed, with more than 80 in the pipeline. Facilities like Circular Plastics Australia represent sovereign capability creating local jobs and turning a waste problem into an economic opportunity. To everyone at Circular Plastics Australia: thank you for having me. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Australians have the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world, with more than one in three homes now with solar panels. But after 25 years of powering homes many of these solar panels are reaching their end of life. Approximately four million solar panels entered the waste stream in 2025. We estimate that more than 100,000 tonnes of solar panels will enter Australia's waste stream by 2035. Right now, only 17 per cent of these solar panels are being recycled. South Australia, Victoria and the ACT have banned sending solar panels to landfill, because they are packed full of valuable materials like copper, silver, aluminium and silicon. The Albanese Labor government is investing $25 million over three years to deliver a national pilot program to recycle solar panels, establishing 100 pilot collection sites throughout the country. This will mean less waste, more recovery of valuable minerals and a stronger clean energy supply chain. There is also a huge economic prize here: we stand to unlock up to $7.3 billion from reducing waste and keeping these materials in circulation. This is a great career pathway for young Australians to consider. Find out more at the Australian Resources Recovery Council website.
Answers to Questions | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
The opposition emoting and waxing lyrical about the cost of living is honestly a little bit rich. Why? I was here in the first term of this government, and I remember that they voted against...
The opposition emoting and waxing lyrical about the cost of living is honestly a little bit rich. Why? I was here in the first term of this government, and I remember that they voted against every single cost-of-living measure that this Albanese government put forward to this parliament. It's a bit rich and disingenuous that they would stand here and profess to actually care about the Australian people. We're a government who understands that Australian families, households and businesses are under pressure. The cost of living was the dominant issue in our first term of government. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with an inflationary hangover. That is evident. We understand that millions of Australians will be disappointed with this interest rate rise, but we're a government that is not here to emote. We are here to actually do something about this and support Australians during this period. What are we doing about that? There's a whole suite of measures that I can describe. Health care has been a big area of action, as has housing, after a decade of Liberal and National neglect—I was about to say coalition, but they're not that anymore. I don't know what they are. We're acting on the skills shortage, which was absolutely forgotten about after a decade of drift under the Liberals. Of course, we're acting on wages. If we just take one area, health care—an area I can speak about; I have some experience in health care—we have, with $8½ billion, pumped in the biggest investment in Medicare's 42-year history. Medicare is a great Labor legacy. It was borne out of the Hawke government—incredible vision—and before that was Medibank. It was resisted all the way through by the Liberals. They thought that free health care was ridiculous, that no-one should have universal health care. That is not the vision that a Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke, had. With that $8½ billion, we are actually seeing green shoots of recovery in bulk-billing. Since this rolled out on 1 November, we've seen about 1,300 clinics take up bulk-billing. Imagine that: going to see your doctor, and you don't have to pull out your credit card, just show your Medicare card. We've also rolled out 120 urgent care clinics which have now seen 2.2 million presentations. A third of those presentations are actually kids. These are clinics that are open from morning till evening, usually seven days a week, and they're staffed by local doctors. They're walk-in, you don't need an appointment, and they're bulk-billed. The tests or diagnostics that are ordered at these clinics are also bulk-billed. So, of course, families with children are flocking to these clinics. Imagine, on a Saturday, when you've got a footy injury or some other ailment—maybe it's a sick child running a high temperature or gastro—and you don't want to be queuing up for hours in the emergency department. You can go to your urgent care clinic. Victoria now has six of these clinics open, and there is another one that will be open in Stonnington East, in my old electorate of Higgins. These clinics have already seen a six per cent reduction in emergency department presentations in Victoria. That is how we take pressure off our public hospitals, by providing options for Australians in the community. We rolled out cheaper meds. Cheaper medicines are now $25 per script as of 1 January. It hasn't been that low since 2004. That was the lowest that it was, and it's again $25 per script. In addition to that, we are looking after those one in seven Australian women who have endometriosis, with 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics that have been rolled out throughout the country. These clinics are providing lifesaving care to women who have been forgotten, unheard by the medical profession. Endometriosis is not a condition that I was ever trained on when I went through med school, but we have elevated it thanks to a near $1 billion investment in women's health by this Albanese Labor government. In addition to that, we have a pretty comprehensive program on mental health supports. As of a few weeks ago, Medicare mental health check-ins started. This is worth googling. It's an online digital resource which is available when you need it and where you need it, and it's evidence based. We know that there is more to do. But we are not just talking about it; we are acting. (Time expired)
Bondi Beach: Attack | Condolences | Senate debates
Sunday 14 December 2025 will forever be etched in infamy in this country—a day when the malignant effects of antisemitism collided with the equally malignant effects of Islamic radicalism....
Sunday 14 December 2025 will forever be etched in infamy in this country—a day when the malignant effects of antisemitism collided with the equally malignant effects of Islamic radicalism. The sounds of song and surf were pierced by screams and gunshots as people either fell to the ground killed, cowered in terror or scattered in multiple directions. I pay my respects to the memories of 15 Australians, the majority of them Jewish, along with at least 40 injured people facing long roads to recovery ahead. The physical wounds heal faster than the psychological ones. My sister lost a dear friend in Adam Smyth; my heartfelt condolences to his family and to the families of Boris and Sofia Gurman, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Edith Brutman, Boris Tetleroyd, Marika Pogany, Peter Meagher, Dan Elkayam, Reuven Morrison, Tibor Weitzen, Alexander Kleytman, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Tania Tretiak and, of course, Matilda, only 10 years old. May their memories be a blessing. In Jewish tradition, repeating the names of the deceased ensures that their memories do not die. I pay tribute to the first responders, lifeguards, healthcare workers, police—including constables Jack Hibbert and Scott Dyson, who were injured—and emergency personnel who sprung into action on the day and have continued their work with professionalism in service to our community and country. Amid the chaos and terror were extraordinary acts of courage, like Sofia and Boris Gurman, who had the presence of mind to disarm the terrorist as he was about to start his killing spree, only to be shot dead; 14-year-old Chaya Dadon, who, in the middle of the attack, left the safety of a shelter to shield two children who were stranded next to their wounded parents, getting shot in the process—a child herself shielding children, who said: 'I felt like Hashem'—or God—'was sitting right next to me. He was whispering into my ear, "This is your mission; go save those kids."'; Reuven Morrison, a Russian Australian grandfather who distracted the attacker by throwing bricks, buying time for others to flee to safety before he was fatally shot; and of course, Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian Muslim refugee, who crash-tackled the terrorist, wrenching away his gun as he was approaching people who were cowering on the ground, saving countless lives while being shot multiple times. He said, 'I am defending my people, defending innocent people, whatever their religion.' We saw on that day the worst and the best of Australia. This atrocity did not happen in isolation; it happened in a permissive environment of antisemitism. We had been warned by Jewish Australians—including the special envoy for antisemitism, Jillian Segal—and the boss of ASIO, Mike Burgess, that words matter. Hateful antisemitic rhetoric, if left unchecked, opens the door to escalation. This is exactly what has occurred since 7 October 2023. Antisemitic language opened the door to graffiti; the targeting of Jewish businesses and academics; the doxxing of Jewish creatives; the rebooting of the BDS—that is, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement—targeting anything Jewish or Israel associated, including research partnerships; violent protests on the streets of Melbourne, where horse manure and acid were thrown at police; the vandalism of Labor MP officers; firebombing of a childcare centre; firebombing of cars in Jewish neighbourhoods; Australian Muslim healthcare workers emboldened to publicly announce that they would harm Jewish patients—they should never again be allowed to practice; and the torching of the Adass Israel Synagogue, in Elsternwick. The weekly protests in Melbourne witnessed people carrying placards citing the death of Israel, chanting 'from the river to the sea' and reinforcing the abolition of Israel; calls to 'globalise the intifada', a subversive call to jihad; and people celebrating pictures of terror organisations or sponsors of terror like Iranian ayatollahs, Hezbollah or the colours of Hamas and Hezbollah. There were times when I felt that Melbourne had become a place I did not recognise. Our security agencies uncovered foreign interference from Iran, which had co-opted local criminals to do their bidding, resulting in our government ejecting the Iranian ambassador. It revealed that Iran was the head of this snake, a chaos machine funding terrorism throughout the world, and we were not immune. I said in my farewell speech as the member for Higgins that sectarian grievances should not be imported nor amplified here. Leave them at the door. We live and die under the Australian flag, not under the banners of our previous countries. The inability of many Australians to manage their moral distress or to disagree agreeably has led to blame being sprayed in multiple directions, towards government, universities, businesses, arts and cultural institutions, but worst of all, towards Jewish Australians. They are not responsible for the problems in the Middle East. Free speech does not mean hate speech. Free speech does not mean a free-for-all. Australians value the right to free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of religious expression, but those rights come with obligations—to treating each other with mutual respect and to equity and inclusion. It seems that this permissive environment of antisemitism has come with the departure of decency and forgetting our obligations to each other. Antisemitism has taken root in our country, but so has extremist ideology, including Islamic radicalism and Neo-Nazi extremism. All are like terminal cancers. You can't protect the good cells of the body without excising the cancerous ones. The laws we are introducing will strengthen gun control and make it easier to proscribe hate groups, but the lack of support for the racial vilification provisions is a major loophole for terrorism. It was identified as a key recommendation by the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in her report, but, unfortunately, it has been shelved—for now—due to insufficient political support. I believe that, for the sake of the 15 lives lost, families shattered and a nation seeking enduring mitigations, we should progress these provisions via a parliamentary inquiry, but in the interim, via the royal commission. This is unfinished business of this moment. If the worst terrorist incident in Australia's history can't motivate us to tackle the hard stuff, then I don't know what will. Addressing racial vilification matters because, as the Prime Minister said, the terrorists had hate in their hearts but also had guns in their hands. That hate started with language—a poison that was dripped into their ears either in person, online or both. Language matters because it radicalises. Extremist Islamic preachers and clerics who till the soil of hate, citing selective verses in the Koran to support their claims against the infidels, who are Christians, Jews and non-believers, are exploiting Australia's values of free speech against us. The crazy thing is that these extremists think that they've won when they lose. According to their rigid belief systems, their own death begets martyrdom. The literal interpretation of aspects of the Koran is not today compatible with the laws and values of Australia, nor any liberal democracy for that matter. I would urge the many decent Australian Islamic leaders of repute to moderate this kind of interpretation because it may be fuelling fanaticism and putting us all in danger. Muslim Australians are overwhelmingly peaceful and decent people. Extremism by a hateful minority smears them all and fuels anti-Muslim sentiment. It also fuels anti-immigrant sentiment in a country where one in two Australians were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. It emboldens Neo-Nazis to recruit, campaign against Australians of Jewish or Indian ancestry and entertain ambitions for political representation, which makes my blood run cold. Already, our introduction of prohibitions against hate groups has seen the National Socialist Network, a bunch of Neo-Nazis, disband. How we deoxygenate the bad and oxygenate all that is good and right in Australia will be the subject of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. I thank the Jewish community, including grieving families, Jewish organisations and civic groups, including many Labor members, both current and former, who advocated for it. I hope that, in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack Australia has ever seen, it delivers a blueprint that will not only help us outlaw the bad stuff but also address how we strengthen the bonds between each other and between disparate communities. Australia is multicultural, but our social cohesion has fissures, with bridges between communities being pulled up, to our collective detriment. This is why social engineering measures will be just as important as the criminal justice ones. The royal commission will also afford Jewish Australians testimonial justice, preventing them, I hope, from feeling and becoming permanently marginalised in their own country. Living in a state of hypervigilance behind walls cannot be their future. The first time I lit my menorah, which I purchased in Tel Aviv weeks after October 7, was after the Bondi terrorist attack. In a darkened room, I reflected on a Jewish truth first conveyed to me by the Chabad family in Malvern: that only light defeats darkness. The Jewish community have met this moment and so many past—in fact, too many—with vigils of song, prayer and candlelight. Such was also the case for those 15 lives lost. How they find the grace to sing rather than shout, to extend the outstretched hand rather than the clenched fist, is a mystery to me. I don't understand how they do this. It is something, though, that we can all learn from.
Workplace Relations: Amazon | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
Amazon is making bank built off the back of hardworking Aussies. Behind unbeatable low prices and next-day delivery are questionable work practices that keep people in economic precarity....
Amazon is making bank built off the back of hardworking Aussies. Behind unbeatable low prices and next-day delivery are questionable work practices that keep people in economic precarity. Warehouse staff are employed as casuals or through labour hire, and delivery drivers are pushed into the gig economy. We know these workers are overwhelmingly young people and migrants. Amazon maximises its returns off the back of hardworking Aussies, who deserve their fair share. What's the size of that pie? In 2024, Amazon Commercial Services earned an eye-watering $3.12 billion in Australia but paid just—wait for it—$24.9 million in tax. That's a mere 0.8 per cent. A nurse pays more tax than Amazon. We are all being taken for a ride, people! We are all being taken for a ride. This is exactly why unions like the TWU and SDA are so important. Unions hold powerful corporations to account. They hold their feet to the fire. Unions commission research. They engage with leaders and their workers to help deliver better conditions, like stronger safeguards for gig workers, protected penalty rates for casual employees, payday super, banning wage secrecy, and multi-employer bargaining—all these measures that, with the help of our unions, this Albanese Labor government has delivered for Australian workers. There is no standing up to the corporate giants unless you stand together. Join your union.
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 | Senate debates
I stand in ardent support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. This is a landmark reform. It's generational, a word we throw around too often, but it is truly generational in every...
I stand in ardent support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. This is a landmark reform. It's generational, a word we throw around too often, but it is truly generational in every sense of the word—not only for current generations but for future generations. Many of us came into this parliament, leaving behind jobs that were far easier, to be good ancestors. This is a true moment of being the good ancestors that we wish to be, that we aspire to be. From the outset, I want to thank the Greens political party. I want to thank Senator Waters and Senator Hanson-Young for their collaboration and their leadership in supporting the passage of this bill. I know that, for many Greens supporters and, indeed, Labor supporters and advocates, we all care for nature. We love nature. We are nature. We are embedded in nature, and we recognise that. People across our political spectrum have spent a lifetime fighting for nature—years and years, decades and decades. This is meaningful reform for our nation and for this parliament, and it is vindication of those decades of work by stakeholders in the community, both on the Labor side and on the Greens side. It is disappointing that we were unable to garner the support of the coalition, but the coalition, honestly, have departed the field on so many fronts. They style themselves as an alternative party of government, but I think their decision today not to support this landmark reform only underscores that they can no longer hold the mantle of being an alternative party of government. But they're not the story. The story today is about the environment. This bill builds upon the work of the Samuel review. Professor Graeme Samuel is the architect of this bill. I want to thank him and the team that delivered the Samuel report five years ago, in 2020, under the then coalition government. That report laid it all out. It laid out the state of the environment. It was in a poor state of health and it was deteriorating, and there was a real sense of urgency in that report that we needed to get this work done. Professor Samuel presented evidence to us during the committee inquiry, and he laid it out for us that we just can't wait any longer—getting 80 per cent there is going to be good enough. It highlights the fact that passing landmark laws in this place always involves trade-offs. We know that the bill is not perfect, but perfect is the enemy of the good. This is a whole lot better, light years better, than what we currently have, which has led to the destruction of our beautiful landscape and a list as long as my arm of threatened species, with 2,245 threatened species. Australia has this ignominious moniker of being the extinction capital of the world for mammals. How did we get here? We got here because we have had outdated environmental laws for the last 30 years. This is a moment now to completely recalibrate and to close those loopholes that have allowed our koalas and other precious little Australians to fall through the cracks. How does the bill do that? It covers three pillars. The first is protecting and repairing nature. The second is cutting red tape so that we can address those national issues that are bearing down on us—things like housing and renewable energy, which is essential if we are to reduce our emissions and thereby truly act on climate change, which is the elephant in the room. Climate change is the No. 1 threat to biodiversity and to species in our country and in the world. Not talking about renewable energy means that you are not going to act on climate change, and indeed the coalition don't want to talk about climate change. They hate renewable energy and they also hate environmental reform. Today just confirms that. They have departed the field and abandoned Australia. In terms of the third pillar, this bill bakes in transparency and accountability. It does this with regard to the first pillar—protecting and repairing nature—by introducing national environmental standards. This is the first time ever that we're going to have clear legislative standards that spell out what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to matters of national environmental significance. Right now the rules are opaque and, frankly, a bit too discretionary. They're very much dependent on who sits in the minister's chair. God forbid that one day we end up with a terrible government. One thing I have learned as a relatively new parliamentarian—I was elected only in 2022—is that, as much as we wrangle in this place to create good laws that will protect and conserve, no law is bullet proof. This is what I've learned: no piece of legislation is bullet proof against a bad government. I say this to the Australian people: ensure you do your homework when you go to that voting booth, because so much rides on the quality of the government of the day. With a terrible government, you end up with robodebt. With a good government that is here for the right reasons, you end up with a bill like this. You end up with generational reform, whether it be in Medicare, aged care, the NDIS or, now, the environment. The standards will deliver certainty for business and a floor for protection for nature. The bill will introduce 'unacceptable impacts' for the first time. This is redline stuff—go/no go—where we ensure we're not developing or threatening World Heritage sites or Ramsar wetlands. It will also introduce a net gain approach. This is about repairing and restoring nature. It's saying that it's not good enough to just go to the minimum; we're saying you need to go beyond the minimum and start to repair nature and restore biodiversity. That is what we are seeking with this change. The second pillar is of course about cutting red tape. Right now we have a system that is duplicative, achingly slow and often completely incoherent. We've had six different assessment pathways overlapping federal and state laws, and timelines that blow out. All of this bakes cost and delay into those pressing national issues that I outlined earlier. For example, with the housing affordability crisis, which is driven by a housing supply crisis, right now in Victoria there are 310,000 homes that are sitting on the back shelf, the backburner, unable to progress, because our environmental laws are broken. There is a type of dragon, a lizard, that may or may not be threatened by the building of these homes. We haven't been able to resolve this for 10 years. As a result, we don't have enough homes. That's what this means. We have climate change bearing down on us. Australia is on the frontline of climate change, yet it takes between seven and 10 years to get wind farms up. That's completely unacceptable. We need clarity, business needs clarity, and so do the Australian people who put us here to get results. At every single ballot box, we are going to be judged on one thing only, and that is outcomes, so we need to deliver. If we say we want to have cleaner, greener energy, we need to deliver. If we say we want more housing, we actually need to deliver. This legislation enables that delivery. This bill also introduces an accreditation system. What does that mean? Between the federal and state governments, there's too much duplication. You've got federal administration, and then you've got state administration. We are moving towards an accreditation scheme whereby we accredit the state governments around the country to do this kind of administrative paperwork and thereby cut the red tape. This will modernise these bilateral two-way agreements between the Commonwealth and state. This is how you also deliver productivity gains. Cutting red tape means speeding up approvals where appropriate and reducing cost. That reduction in cost will ultimately be passed on to the consumer, and that is a good thing. I'll be watching carefully to see how we can quantify that. Will homes become a little bit cheaper? Maybe. Let's see. Right now there is a lot of cost and delay baked into the system. This bill also hardwires climate into the bill by forcing proponents to declare their scope 1 and 2 emissions. This means that the big matters will be forced to outline their emissions and their emissions reduction plans. It will not necessarily capture property developers and people who are trying to build housing. I just want to make that clear. Interestingly—this is a really important point—this bill will also deliver certainty to those young Australians who are thinking of entering apprenticeships, whether they be in the electrical trades or in construction. We heard testimony about this a week or two ago. Right now young people who are aspiring to become sparkies are walking away because there isn't continuity of projects. There isn't a continuous pipeline of projects; it's coming in fits and starts. I speak, of course, of renewable energy projects and transmission bills. It's just too slow. We need 40,000 sparkies by 2030. It's not trivial. This is nation building. For us to attract 40,000, if not more, young Australians—men and women, I might add—into this high-demand, well-paid career, we need to ensure that the pipeline of delivery of renewable energy projects is full. This environmental reform will enable that to happen. The final pillar is around accountability and transparency. We will be establishing, for the first time ever, a national environmental protection authority. This will be a watchdog with real teeth, and it comes with severe penalties. The last time I checked, the penalties were sitting at around $825 million. I'm not sure where the amendments will fall there, but that's a substantial amount of money if you do the wrong thing. And it shifts some of these regulatory functions away from the minister to the EPA—long overdue. We'll also be installing the Environment Information Australia body. This is to ensure that we have data driven decision-making. Everyone—whether it be regulators, government, the Australian people, proponents—need data, and that data is disbursed and fragmented between three layers of jurisdictions: Commonwealth, federal and local. So the task of Environment Information Australia will be to collate that data so that decisions can be data driven, rather than based on a vibe. I want to conclude by saying that Labor has a proud legacy in the environment space. It was a Labor government that, with Bob Brown and his advocacy years ago, saved the Franklin, passed World Heritage legislation and went on to protect Kakadu and the Daintree. And it was under Whitlam—what a visionary!—that we introduced Landcare. This Labor government also expanded our marine parks in the last term. I want to thank the current minister, Minister Watt, who builds on the work of Minister Plibersek, for delivering this landmark reform. I thank the Senate.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
I thank Senator David Pocock and colleagues for moving this important motion on CSIRO. CSIRO is, indeed, a national asset. As it is a peak public institution in this country, devoted to science,...
I thank Senator David Pocock and colleagues for moving this important motion on CSIRO. CSIRO is, indeed, a national asset. As it is a peak public institution in this country, devoted to science, we will always support it. This stands in contrast to the climate deniers on the opposite side, who now seem to have discovered a genuine interest in science. It's entirely hypocritical for them to be now clutching their pearls and their chests and wringing their hands in anguish over imminent job cuts at CSIRO. You have no credibility whatsoever. The story of CSIRO is not one of government job cuts. It is, unfortunately, a story of mismanagement. Indeed, four days ago, a whistleblower declared to the Fairfax Papers that there were problems evident at CSIRO five years ago. The Morrison government, during the pandemic, injected an additional $459 million over four years into CSIRO. This funding boost led to a huge increase in CSIRO's headcount. The headcount swelled by nearly 1,400 staff between 2020 and 2024. In other words, CSIRO went on a massive recruitment drive with this additional funding. What also happened during that time is that employee benefits, CSIRO's largest expense, jumped—by 30 per cent since 2019. This is a quote from this former senior staff member: There were no real projects for them to work on. When 2024 clocked on, there was a funding cliff, and this near half-a-billion dollars that had been injected into CSIRO had been, effectively, squandered. The new management have come on under the stewardship of eminent scientist and fine Australian Professor Doug Hilton. He's had to do housekeeping; he and the independent board, which stands at arm's length from the government, have had to do some housekeeping. I want to make it clear: any institution, whether it be scientific or otherwise, that receives public funds must be held accountable. CSIRO must be held accountable even though it is a peak scientific body. It is not a protected species. No-one that receives taxpayer dollars in this really challenging fiscal environment is a protected species. So the board did a review. It was the first strategic review in 15 years—and that tells you everything you need to know. It decided that there needed to be a realignment of CSIRO's priorities with the national priorities of this government. As a result of the mismanagement of the previous administration, unfortunately, a number of people are now likely to lose their job. In terms of these people, bear in mind that this Albanese Labor government is establishing a number of statutory bodies next year. From January next year, the first ever Centre for Disease Control will kick off. That is going to require people with expertise in infectious diseases. Professor Hilton has already declared that one priority will be 'one health'—animal health as well as human health and environmental health. This will be an absolute focus of the CDC. There is no tackling infectious diseases unless you tackle threats to animals as well as the broader environment, because that's how pandemics emerge. In addition, provided this parliament works together and passes our environmental laws, we will be standing up a national environmental protection agency. So those workers who are likely to lose their jobs in the environmental sector of CSIRO will potentially be able to enter the EPA or Environment Information Australia, the EIA. We would need their expertise. In addition to that, we have just announced the establishment of a national AI safety institute, a body that will rest within the department of industry. It will absolutely need scientists with expertise in AI, quantum and mathematics to be able to, again, scan the horizon for threats. So there are opportunities here for those scientists. (Time expired)
Victoria: Medical Workforce, Australian Defence Force School of Health | Adjournment | Senate debates
Recently I had the privilege of attending a celebration for the very first cohort to graduate from Victoria's end-to-end rural medical training program, delivered in partnership between La Trobe...
Recently I had the privilege of attending a celebration for the very first cohort to graduate from Victoria's end-to-end rural medical training program, delivered in partnership between La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne. It was a landmark moment for the graduates, for regional Victoria and for the nation. For as long as I can remember, we have had a doctor drought in the regions. The evidence is clear that students who come from the regions and train in the regions stay in the regions. This is precisely what this partnership delivers. It is not an add-on or a placement tacked on to a metropolitan degree; it is true end-to-end regional training that opens the doors wider for rural and regional students, many of whom might never have seen themselves reflected in a traditional city-centric model of medical education. At the celebration, I met graduates who are already working in their communities—young people with deep roots in their community who have not endured the dislocation of travel away from family, sporting teams and childhood friends, nor the cost-of-living pressures of studying away from home. Many are the first in their family to attend university. Many have juggled study with work, caring responsibilities and, in some cases, the disruptions of fires, floods and a pandemic. These are not just bright students; they are resilient. After all, they have managed seven years of medical study—that's much longer than my training was. They are community-minded clinicians who understand their patients, because their patients are neighbours. They share their lived experience. If we are serious about equity in health, we must be serious about innovative models like this. They work. They grow a work-ready rural medical workforce. They give country kids a fair shot at a medical career and give country communities a fair shot at a timely and high-quality health service. Of note is that our government has increased the number of Commonwealth-supported places for medical students by an extra 100 places per year, starting from this year, increasing to 150 by 2028. Notably, we have seen the highest number of doctors taking up general practice training—this year, it was 1,800, and that will increase to 2,000 by 2028. It is welcome. Finally, we've also seen, for the first time, the inclusion of rural generalism as a brand-new medical speciality. This just does not happen very often. In fact, it's the second time it has happened in 15 years. It was signed off by the Medical Board of Australia in September this year. I want to place on record my congratulations to the graduating cohort and to their families, to the educators and to the clinical supervision staff for this partnership. Their success is not just a personal achievement; it is an investment in the health and dignity of regional Australia. On a recent trip to north-east Victoria, I was taken back to my days as a medical professional while touring the Australian Defence Force School of Health at Latchford Barracks, Bonegilla. Set in beautiful gardens, this facility provides world-class medical training to hundreds of trainees each year. It does so by combining cutting-edge technology with highly experienced educators, placing students in an environment where they are pushed physically, mentally and academically. This is an educational experience like no other. In a matter of steps, I went from a hospital ward to the inside of a helicopter and a medical-grade ambulance. This is an immersive, accelerated learning experience, where vital clinical skills are distilled, not over years but over months, for medics who can manage blast injuries, sepsis, wounds and heart attacks. But they push into realms not taught in a standard medical school, like aviation medicine, barotrauma and CBRM. Under the stewardship of educators who have served, these medics will go on to deliver life-saving care, sometimes under extraordinary pressure. The success of the school was written on the faces of the trainees I met, some carrying 20 kilos of gear, in flak jackets and army fatigues, about to embark on a trek, with medicines, bandages, smiles and banter. The fact that this program is sought-after internationally is testament to its reputation. It is heartening that our defence personnel are being equipped with world-class medical training—skills that not only save lives but also uphold Australia's commitment to excellence and service. I want to sincerely thank the team for their tour and for giving me the opportunity to speak to our future health leaders in defence.
Health Care | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
The Albanese Labor government delivered cost-of-living relief to all Australians by strengthening Medicare and cutting the cost of medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in its first...
The Albanese Labor government delivered cost-of-living relief to all Australians by strengthening Medicare and cutting the cost of medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in its first term. What further action has the government taken in 2025 to help more Australians access cheaper medicines via the PBS?
In its first term, the Albanese Labor government delivered 87 Medicare urgent care clinics so Australians could get the urgent treatment they need. How has the government continued to roll out...
In its first term, the Albanese Labor government delivered 87 Medicare urgent care clinics so Australians could get the urgent treatment they need. How has the government continued to roll out urgent care clinics across Australia, and how is this improving access to health care across Australia?
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator McAllister. This year, delivering cost-of-living relief and affordable health care has been a key priority...
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator McAllister. This year, delivering cost-of-living relief and affordable health care has been a key priority of the Albanese Labor government. How has the government strengthened Medicare and delivered on its commitments to deliver better access to health care for all Australians?
Cost of Living: Tertiary Education | Adjournment | Senate debates
Australia's tertiary education system is one of the best in the world. Under the HELP scheme, every Australian student can study a university degree without paying a cent in tuition until they...
Australia's tertiary education system is one of the best in the world. Under the HELP scheme, every Australian student can study a university degree without paying a cent in tuition until they earn over $67,000 a year. We actually raised that threshold. It was previously sitting at around $54,000 a year. We have lifted that to $67,000 a year to provide some cost-of-living relief to students. But tuition fees aren't the only barrier to university education. For many students who live out of home and whose parents earn above the income threshold for youth allowance, a part-time job is the only way for them to get by. It's super common for students to work part time. These students deserve of to feel supported and to have their needs accommodated, but, for too many working students, their experience is anything but. Law students at Monash University were recently reminded in an email from the dean of law that they should not be working any more than eight to 10 hours per week. They were told to consider reducing their study load and that this kind of time management is 'an important professional skill and well regarded by employers'. This could not be more tone deaf. For an average student, eight to 10 hours per week is less than $230 in their pocket. For students who rely on part-time work to get by, the message is loud and clear: either reduce your study load or drop out altogether. For international student, reducing your study load isn't even an option. Either get by or go home—that's the subtext. The consequences are plain to see. In 2018, a survey by the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education found that an overwhelming number of students were experiencing financial stress. One in three students had living expenses that exceeded their income. One in seven students reported regularly going without food and other necessities. One in five students reduced their course load for financial reasons. No student should have to choose between eating and getting an education. No student should be going to class hungry or worrying how they're going to afford rent. That's why the Albanese Labor government is working to ease the cost of living for students. We've wiped over $16 billion in student debt, lifted the HELP repayment threshold, increased youth allowance and Austudy, boosted the number of Commonwealth supported university places and introduced Commonwealth paid pracs, targeting students of nursing, teaching and social work, who can now apply to receive up to around $330 per week when they are undertaking their mandatory placements. We also introduced tax cuts for all Australians. This will particularly benefit the 1.5 million taxpayers aged 18 to 24, who would have received an average tax cut or around $1,007 per year. We've also introduced broad-base measures to ease the cost of living for all Australians, including young Australians and students, like lifting bulk-billing rates over the next five years. We've cut the price of medicines, which will fall to $25 from 1 January next year. We have rolled out over 90 urgent care clinics, aiming for 137 by the middle of next year. And, of course, contraception is now a whole lot cheaper, given that two-thirds of women of child-bearing age are on contraception. But universities need to do their part. I say to Monash University: 'Where is your empathy? Do better.' I say to those Monash students: 'Join your student union, and make sure you amplify your voice. Join your student union.'
Clearly, strengthening Medicare by improving access to quality, affordable health care is a key focus of the Albanese Labor government. How will the government continue to strengthen Medicare and...
Clearly, strengthening Medicare by improving access to quality, affordable health care is a key focus of the Albanese Labor government. How will the government continue to strengthen Medicare and guard against efforts to undermine it?
The Albanese Labor government opened 87 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in its first term. These clinics have made a big difference in communities right across Australia, giving Australians access...
The Albanese Labor government opened 87 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in its first term. These clinics have made a big difference in communities right across Australia, giving Australians access to care quicker and for free. How is the government continuing to deliver on its commitment to strengthen Medicare by establishing even more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics?
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. A focus of the Albanese Labor government's first term was strengthening Medicare after a decade of neglect. How is...
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. A focus of the Albanese Labor government's first term was strengthening Medicare after a decade of neglect. How is the government delivering access to quality, affordable health care for even more Australians?
Climate Change | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
Australians know that climate change is real and the need for action is urgent, even many in the Liberal Party now say as much. But missing in action are the Nationals, who, with a shrug and a...
Australians know that climate change is real and the need for action is urgent, even many in the Liberal Party now say as much. But missing in action are the Nationals, who, with a shrug and a smirk, walked away from net zero over the weekend. In abandoning net zero, they have abandoned the Australian people, current and future generations. The party of farmers are turning their backs on farmers who wish to droughtproof their businesses. They are turning their backs on jobs in regional communities. They are turning their backs on regional communities who wish to diversify their economies, knowing that it's these same communities who are the ones who are most acutely feeling the impacts of climate change. This is the very definition of 'climate delayism'. It is the next chapter in the climate denialism playbook, and it is just as harmful. We have seen this movie before—
Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025, Australian Centre for Disease Control (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I absolutely agree with you; it should do that. Climate change is the threat multiplier. It puts pressure on every single system and sector of society. It's not just about heatwaves; it's not...
I absolutely agree with you; it should do that. Climate change is the threat multiplier. It puts pressure on every single system and sector of society. It's not just about heatwaves; it's not just about heat stress. There's so much more going on when it comes to climate change. It will certainly dovetail and support the work that our government has done in creating a national health and climate strategy. It will be complementary to that. I want to issue a note of caution here, though. During the pandemic I became an activist. I was a science based activist. I spoke up for the health and welfare of healthcare workers, because we were not being looked after during that pandemic. It was really difficult. It was existential for us. It was existential for patients and people in the community, but it was absolutely existential for the front line. I came away from that with learnings that I think the CDC needs to take into account. Firstly, we need to protect the workforce. The healthcare workforce is mission critical to the functioning of this nation. Protect the workforce; ring fence the workforce. It is the asset. It's not the experts, necessarily; it's the workforce. The workforce is everything. Protect the asset. We should not be in a situation where PPE is being rationed in hospitals, aged-care facilities or clinics. We should not be in a situation where surgeons are jury-rigging their masks and literally sticking micropore tape on the edges of their mask because they have not been given the right PPE. We should not be in a situation where paramedics are having their masks and goggles fog up while they are resuscitating patients during a pandemic. That is exactly what happened. We should not be in a situation where healthcare workers are purchasing their own PPE, at considerable cost, because it's simply not provided by their place of work. We should not be in a situation where any healthcare worker is gaslit or censured in a system that privileges optics over work health and safety. Healthcare workers don't ask for much, but they want to be kept safe at work, especially when they are faced with a life-threatening, infectious disease. I would say to an incoming CDC leadership: actually take some time to think about enacting the precautionary principle. If you're not sure, go to the highest level and then work backwards as the science evolves. Failure to do so puts lives at risk. If you are going to put frontline healthcare workers' lives at risk, what you are wishing for is collapse of the health system, burnout amongst staff and departures of staff from the health system, which just puts additional stress on other staff. You end up enacting a downward spiral, which is exactly what we saw and which was a mess that we cleaned up when we came to government. Secondly, we need to ensure that we have a diversity of voices around the table, such as the voices of disability. We should make sure we have adequate representation around that advisory committee. We must have voices from the front line—from the nurses, the doctors, the paramedics and the allied health professionals. We must ensure that these voices are heard. If not, we end up with groupthink. We end up with leaders who are making decisions on behalf of people who are actually in the hot zone, and they may not always get it right. So listen to that wisdom from the edge. It is really, really important. It is a protective factor against making bad decisions. Thirdly, we need to be open facing. A future CDC needs to be open facing to the public and listen to the workforce and to the science. It's important that a CDC responds to evolving science. In particular, I cite clean air. We spent far too long, right round this country, wiping down surfaces, which would have been fine if we had had a pandemic of gastro, but we didn't. We had a pandemic of a respiratory virus that was travelling through the air, and it was too late before that was adequately (1) recognised and (2) addressed.
I rise in support of the establishment of an Australian CDC. I've got to say, Senator Antic, it was pretty hard for me to listen to what you just said. That tirade was next level, particularly...
I rise in support of the establishment of an Australian CDC. I've got to say, Senator Antic, it was pretty hard for me to listen to what you just said. That tirade was next level, particularly for someone who was on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was a healthcare professional on that front line with my colleagues, wrapped in PPE. I put it to you that you get to stand here, and I get to stand here, thanks to the decisions that were made by healthcare professionals, public health specialists and government. And I also say to all those Victorians: yes, it was really hard; I completely agree it was hard. But the decisions that were made by the then Victorian government meant that our hospitals in Victoria did not collapse. We remained functional and we were able to still see patients, some of whom died. The fact that next week I will be celebrating my father's 85th birthday means that we did something right as a country. Yes, there were a lot of things that went wrong and that we want to learn from. And this is why we are, as a Labor government, fulfilling a promise that we took to two elections: to establish a national centre for disease control. We will now be aligned with other OECD countries in the world who actually have a centre like this so that we do not have to go through some of that confusing, contradictory advice that we had during the pandemic. I won't stand here, as a Victorian, and watch people like Senator Antic—and others, no doubt, during the course of today—tear down the decisions that were made. It was tough; it was really tough. I saw enough people die on the front line, often people who did not get vaccinated. They either ended up gasping for air—and we were unable to save them—or they ended up with chronic health conditions thereafter. So we are establishing this long-awaited CDC. It is a capability born in the aftermath of a one-in-100-years event, which was the COVID-19 pandemic. It will stand as an enduring legacy of this Labor government, up there with Medicare, up there with the National Reconstruction Fund and up there with the National Anti-Corruption Commission. We're doing it because it was evident from those years that Australia was woefully underprepared for what came to our doorstep—woefully underprepared. Under the former government, there had not been a national pandemic drill for 12 years. It's not as if there hadn't been pandemics. We have had pandemics. It started off with Spanish flu, and in this century we've had SARS-1; we've had swine flu; we've had MERS, Middle Eastern respiratory disease; and we've now, of course, had the COVID-19 pandemic. But, for whatever reason, the previous government never decided we needed to have a pandemic drill. We had no playbook. I know for a fact that other countries, particularly those that were hit hard by the first wave of SARS, SARS-1, like Singapore, China and Hong Kong, did have playbooks. It was literally a book on a shelf that they pulled off the shelf and opened to page 1. That's how they responded when they were hit with COVID-19. This is what our Commonwealth Centre for Disease Control will deliver for Australians—a playbook that we can literally take off the shelf and open to page 1 when we are hit, inevitably, with the next pandemic. We also note that it was tough during that pandemic. I know this well, probably most acutely as a Victorian. We went through around six lockdowns, amounting to 260 days. My children were stuck at home with school online for nearly two years, on and off. My daughter went through her VCE soon after. I wasn't in lockdown. I went to work every day. I was wrapped in PPE with my co-workers on that front line, and it was really hard. We sweltered under that plastic to the point where one day I nearly had to catch my registrar. That's what it was like. But I'm also aware that it was a real struggle for people in the community to go through that period. Confidence was shaken, no doubt. Trust was eroded. Businesses struggled. This was no more evident than on the front line in aged care, when we actually had to send the Army in to rescue aged care, such was the state of the aged-care system. It was utterly broken. So we do believe, given what we have gone through, that we need to establish an Australian centre for disease control. This CDC will have the capability to lead consistent advice, to be a source of authority and of ground truth, to be responsive and to ensure that we are prepared—that we have resilience back into our system. It is essential that we do that. Its focus initially will be on communicable diseases, which are, of course, infectious diseases—my wheelhouse. And I can tell you all now: the bugs are smarter than us. They always are. They will always be one step ahead of us because they mutate. They mutate fast. Every single one of those pandemics that I listed emerged from the animal kingdom. So, when we talk about one health being enshrined in an Australian CDC, we're referring to the fact that most of these pandemics that have affected humans have emerged from animals, so there's no point corralling human health from animal health. The two are intertwined, and that is what this legislation recognises. I do support us rolling this out in a staged fashion, initially addressing infectious diseases, because I think that, yes, while there is an intention to later on address chronic diseases—non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and obesity—we want to ensure that we set up this institution for success. Trying to do too much too soon will only overload the system and undermine its confidence to actually carry out this kind of work. We want to set it up for success, and I think that a staged approach is important. I thank the Greens political party and the contributions from Senator Steele-John in recognising that we need to have a disability voice in the advisory committee. I think that is incredibly important, because the disability community were the hardest hit during the pandemic. They are a highly vulnerable group of people, and they died or suffered the most acute effects of lockdown, being completely segregated from the wider community. In terms of recognising the need for the CDC to look at the impacts of climate change—
Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I rise to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill. The loss of a child is a profound tragedy. It has been described as a palpable, cascading grief that is linked to an equally...
I rise to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill. The loss of a child is a profound tragedy. It has been described as a palpable, cascading grief that is linked to an equally palpable yearning—a longing that stretches into the infinite. It is everlasting—a grief for what has happened and what could have been of a life cut short. In this situation, in this period of grief, what we aim to do is prevent it from morphing into, or becoming, a trauma. This, unfortunately, was the scenario that faced Baby Priya's mother. Baby Priya died at six weeks of age to a mum who had been employed in an organisation for 11 years. This mum then faced the situation where her paid parental leave was unilaterally cancelled by her employer, yet this was not the situation for Baby Priya's father. As a result—thanks to their courageous advocacy—we now have this bill before us. We are here in this parliament to right this injustice. We want to, by bringing forward this amendment, reduce the distress of both parents and employers, who really shouldn't be in this position with a lack of clarity around what to do in these circumstances. We want to allow, with this amendment, parents the time and space to grieve and to provide clear guidance to employers as to what they should do in these rare scenarios. Stillbirth is rare. Australia is a country that has one of the safest records for women in childbirth. But in Australia six babies a day are stillborn. They're not viable when they're born. We also know that two babies die within 28 days of birth per year. That totals over 3,000 families who are affected every single year. So it's not negligible. It is rare, but it is certainly not negligible. In moving this amendment, we will be attempting to alleviate some of that distress for those families, giving them the time and space to grieve. I do want to say that it has been beyond disappointing to hear some of the arguments peddled in this chamber linking this bill in some way to late-term termination of pregnancy. Late-term abortions are not trivial matters. They are not done on the whim of a mother or father. They are a medical decision made by doctors and a wider medical team, usually in a specialist hospital for women. It is a multidisciplinary decision, and it's usually done due to a severe fetal abnormality or if the mother's health and wellbeing are at risk due to psychological or psychiatric problems. This is an extremely rare scenario. It is beyond disappointing to hear some of the misinformation—and disinformation, I would argue—being peddled in this chamber by some members of parliament who, frankly, should stick to their lane. I will also flag that there are disturbing reports in the media of women who are not listening to their trained midwives or doctors but are instead choosing to be influenced by doulas or social media influencers around having homebirths or freebirths. This has led to numerous deaths both of babies and of women in Australia, and there's no need for this. I would urge the women of Australia to seek their advice from trained professionals—either midwives or obstetricians. We have universal health care; these people are accessible. Don't rely on social media influencers. I say this because, in medicine, we reserve the word 'catastrophe' for only one specialty. Only one specialty uses the word 'catastrophe', and that is obstetrics. It doesn't appear in the lexicon of any other specialty in medicine. In medicine, our language tends to be very dispassionate because, in an emergency, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals are trained to operate under immense stress in order to alleviate a situation. Emotion is taken out of it, unlike in this place. It's completely taken out of it. But the term 'obstetric catastrophe' is absolutely enshrined in obstetrics because, when things go wrong, they go wrong quickly, and it's often too late to wait for an ambulance to come to save the day—just too late. I won't go into the graphic details, but it gives an indication of how important it is to, in that antenatal period, seek your advice from the professionals. Back to this bill—in the situation of a stillbirth or an infant death, we want families to have certainty. We want employers to have certainty as well. This bill will provide that kind of clarity by preventing the unilateral cancellation of paid parental leave. And it builds upon the other supports that this Labor government has introduced for working parents, principally the expansion of paid parental leave, which currently sits at 24 weeks and will go up to 26 weeks next year, and the numerous reforms we are making to early education and care to better support working families. It's important to understand what this bill does not do. It does not interfere with existing bargained entitlements. There are many employers who already offer express stillbirth leave entitlements, which will be unaffected by this reform. It does not prevent employers and workers from bargaining and agreeing to conditions in good faith. It does not create a requirement for employers to begin providing employer funded PPL, paid parental leave, if it is not already provided. The bill also prevents employers from undercutting this reform by unilaterally changing the existing terms and conditions of employment after commencement. I want to conclude by thanking the courageous advocacy of Baby Priya's mother and father—for bringing this to the attention of our government and our parliament. Baby Priya is not here to see this, but this bill will preserve her memory. I commend this bill to the Senate.
Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
I seek leave to ask a question on behalf of the state of Victoria regarding the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Leave not granted.