House debates

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    Over 60 per cent of metro students say they are keen to go to university, compared with only 32 per cent from regional and remote communities. There is already a divide between city and country...
  • Higgins Electorate: Relay for Life (1 speech)
    Relay for Life was started in 1985 by US surgeon, Dr Gordy Klatt, who spent 24 hours circling a running track in Tacoma, Washington, raising over US$27,000 for cancer research—proving that...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    I rise to report to the House the opposition I am finding among the local community of Lalor to this government's planned, cruel changes to higher education. The changes will see 20 per cent cuts...
  • Bushfires (1 speech)
    This week is Bushfire Action Week, when we remind all South Australians to prepare for the fire danger season by knowing the risks, preparing their properties and knowing how to stay informed. I...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    I am pleased to join my colleagues, the member for Bendigo and the member for Lalor, in condemning the Abbott government's unfair changes to universities and in voicing the concerns of so many in...
  • Mallee Electorate (1 speech)
    One of the great things about this place is that it is the people's house. Last night I put a post on my Facebook page asking, 'What is it you want me to raise in the federal parliament?' The...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    There are many ways this government has failed the people of Australia, but one is the most indefensible and short-sighted—the concerted attack on access to higher education. If the changes...
  • Domestic Violence (1 speech)
    I would like to take this opportunity to talk about an issue that sadly still affects many people in Australia. That issue is domestic violence against women. There are various forms of domestic...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    Today the member for Cunningham and I stand in parliament and challenge the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, to come to Wollongong and explain his egregious changes to the higher...
  • Domestic Violence (1 speech)
    I thank my friend the member for Petrie for raising an important issue. Recently I attended a forum hosted by the Central Coast Domestic Violence Committee. This committee consists of community...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    A couple of weeks ago I attended the University of Technology, Sydney graduation ceremony. I went there to see a young Vietnamese girl graduate with first class honours in law and a high...
  • Fiscal Policy (1 speech)
    There has obviously been a strategy being worked by the opposition, where every speaker suddenly has this passion about higher education. But the debt levels that they talk about are debt levels...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    I do not believe I would be standing in this chamber today making this speech about higher education had it not been for the changes that Gough Whitlam introduced in the seventies to allow access...
  • Deakin Electorate: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Primary School (1 speech)
    I rise today to pay tribute to the hard-working parents, friends and parishioners of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Primary School and Parish in Ringwood, who last weekend held their annual...
  • Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (1 speech)
    It gives me great pleasure today to welcome into this Australian Parliament House six very special people: four women leaders from the Torres Strait Islands and two women who are their trainers....
  • Cancer (1 speech)
    I rise to acknowledge the efforts over the weekend of the organising committee and participants in the Murraylands Relay for Life held at the Sturt Reserve Murray Bridge that I had the privilege...
  • Higher Education (1 speech)
    We have heard a lot of spin and slogans from the government about their broken promise on university fee deregulation. We have heard the Minister for Education claim that 'students will always be...
  • Conaghan, Mrs Lynise (1 speech)
    I wish to pay tribute to a mother from an isolated cattle property in Central Queensland who has been named in the nation's top 100 women of influence for 2014. Lynise Conaghan of Barmount...
  • Higher Education (6 speeches)
    Bella, a 17-year-old Perth girl, contacted me recently to describe the impact that the massive increases in university fees and funding cuts have already had on her. Bella is an energetic,...
  • Mackenzie, Mrs Dawn (2 speeches)
    Dawn Mackenzie was 70 when she died last Monday, 20 October 2014. She was a warm and generous person, well respected and an icon of the bush. Born on a property near Baralaba, she spent her...