Sam Birrell's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2026-02-05T22:06:04+00:00
items: Cost of Living | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: Copyright Amendment Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Energy | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: Victoria: Bushfires | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
items: Roads, Veterans | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Gnarly Neighbours | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025, Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Aged Care | Motions | House debates
items: Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Hansen Yuncken | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Dismissal of the Whitlam Government: 50th Anniversary | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Energy | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Local Content Broadcasting | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Economy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: Rural and Regional Health Services | Adjournment | House debates

Cost of Living | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: Let's have a think about what has happened this week as a result of inflationary pressure—the uptick in the inflation numbers. Interest rates have risen. What does that mean for people? It...
encoded: Let's have a think about what has happened this week as a result of inflationary pressure—the uptick in the inflation numbers. Interest rates have risen. What does that mean for people? It means their mortgage repayments have risen, and it means the cost-of-living crisis just got a lot worse. That's a serious problem for people out there who live in the real world—not in the chamber, where sometimes people are more interested in talking about political games than what actually matters to people. There's a lot of duck and spin in parliament this week about why this has happened, but I want to put some points together and try and link them logically; try and follow with me. Firstly, the government's failing energy policy is putting the retail cost of energy power up. It's going up because the policy's a dud. It's based on ideology, not reality—and if you want to know that, talk to RepuTex. In an attempt to paper over this failure, with sleight of hand the government gives out energy rebates—one of a very great number of government spending measures by this Labor government that thinks fiscal responsibility is an optional extra. The Treasurer thinks: 'That's okay; we'll give out energy rebates and that will reduce the headline rate of inflation. No-one will notice and everything will be rosy for the economy.' The issue for the Treasurer is the RBA are a bit smarter than that, and they take into account the trimmed mean inflation number as well; therefore, interest rates have gone up. Before people talk about criticising us about the rebates: we wouldn't have had such a ham-fisted energy policy that increased prices in the first place. What does this mean? It means it's getting more expensive to get a mortgage. If you're already paying one off you're paying a lot more, and the cost-of-living crisis is now affecting you even more than it was. If you aspire to buy a house, it just got a lot harder because you're going to need a lot more in your repayments. Not only is tha…
date: 2026-02-04T16:40:00+00:00

Cost of Living | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: It's $7 in the Hunter.
encoded: It's $7 in the Hunter.
date: 2026-02-04T16:31:00+00:00

Copyright Amendment Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I, too, rise to speak on the Copyright Amendment Bill 2025. By its nature, it's a rather uncontroversial bill. As the member for Deakin said, it's supported across the chamber. It makes a lot of...
encoded: I, too, rise to speak on the Copyright Amendment Bill 2025. By its nature, it's a rather uncontroversial bill. As the member for Deakin said, it's supported across the chamber. It makes a lot of technical changes. These reforms are the result of several years of consultation, roundtables and review work commissioned by the government in 2023. I just want to say that I and a lot of us are strong supporters of copyright. Creators—whether they're artists, musicians, writers or photographers—should be paid for the reproduction or use of their works and should be acknowledged for those things. Copyright has become very topical in the last 10 to 15 years. My own artistic endeavour is music, and when I was a wannabe rock star, back in the day, I was in a band called The Hunted and I co-wrote a song called 'The Ballad of the Aimless Artist'. I always want to make sure that the ideas that I put forward are protected in some way. It's interesting to see the way the music industry has evolved, particularly with a number of claims. One famous one was by the American guitarist Joe Satriani, who had a piece of music called 'If I Could Fly'. The melody is remarkably similar to Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida', and, when that was challenged, it was settled out of court. Of course, there's also the famous Australian example of the Men at Work song 'Down Under' and 'Kookaburra' about the Kookaburra who sits in an old gum tree. It's become something that courts and, indeed, legislatures across the world and in our own country have had to grapple with. What is an original idea? When has someone else used it, even if they didn't mean to breach the copyright? If the idea existed and then someone else gains from it, there does need to be some clarification and restitution for that artistic idea. I've also had a keen interest in looking at this bill through a regional lens, particularly as there are a lot of implications for distance learning. The Copyright Amendment Bill 2025 amends the Copyrigh…
date: 2026-02-03T17:37:00+00:00

Energy | Questions without Notice | House debates
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description: My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How many Australians received the $275 reduction in their energy bill that Labor promised by the end of last year?
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How many Australians received the $275 reduction in their energy bill that Labor promised by the end of last year?
date: 2026-02-03T15:37:00+00:00

Victoria: Bushfires | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: Earlier last month large areas of my electorate and the member for Indi's electorate were ravaged by bushfire. Fires that started around the Longwood area were pushed by a north-westerly into...
encoded: Earlier last month large areas of my electorate and the member for Indi's electorate were ravaged by bushfire. Fires that started around the Longwood area were pushed by a north-westerly into farmland and bushland, devastating more than 140,000 hectares. In addition, there were fires up in the north of my electorate in a place called Yarroweyah. Many houses have been lost. Many businesses have been affected, including farms. The iconic Fowles Winery has lost vineyards, and farmers have been forced to go out there with their rifles and put down livestock. I want to give a big shout-out to the state member for Euroa, my National Party colleague Annabelle Cleeland, who has gone above and beyond to help her community with fodder drives and other support. The member for Indi and I met with the Strathbogie Shire Council, which is the council that was most affected. They are saying, 'We have had so much infrastructure damage and we have such a small rate base; how are we going to build it back?' I thank the Minister for Emergency Management for coming to visit with them, but the issue we have is the Strathbogie shire is still awaiting funding for infrastructure that was damaged in the 2022 floods—namely, Kirwans bridge. They're worried that they're not going to get the government support to fix the infrastructure that they've lost in this natural disaster. I ask the Minister for Emergency Management and Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories to come to the party and help the Strathbogie Shire Council.
date: 2026-02-03T13:45:00+00:00

Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
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description: Sunday 14 December 2025 will go down as a day of tragedy and infamy for our nation. It was a day when thousands of people who were peacefully and gracefully celebrating the festival of Hanukkah...
encoded: Sunday 14 December 2025 will go down as a day of tragedy and infamy for our nation. It was a day when thousands of people who were peacefully and gracefully celebrating the festival of Hanukkah were attacked—attacked for being Jewish. Fifteen of them—not them, but fifteen of us—were killed. It's hard to find words to describe how despicable, cowardly and evil this act and the people who perpetrated it are. Aussies at a beach, embracing faith—epitomised by Matilda, a 10-year-old with so much good in her, so much potential and with so much to offer our community—were cut down by hatred and an ideology with nothing to offer. The Jewish community has got a proud history in my electorate, in Shepparton and in the Goulburn Valley. As refugees and migrants coming over many years, they've set up the fruit farms, the dairy farms and—most famously—the packing technologies that drove those industries forward. There was a synagogue; it's no longer there, but there's a memorial stone on Poplar Avenue in Shepparton where the synagogue was. After the terrible events in Bondi, the Shepparton Interfaith Network, a group of all faiths—Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jewish people—all gathered for a candlelight vigil and to talk about the way that faiths have been able to exist together in the Goulburn Valley in a peaceful way. There was no radicalisation, just faith in a culture that says, 'We respect your right to your faith as long as you respect ours.' It's a culture that's eroding in parts of Australia. So where to from here? What are the norms in our society, and what do we want them to be? Do we have the courage to call out the antisemitism in our nation—wherever it resides? Examples of where it resides were articulated so well earlier today by the Member for Berowra. A precious part of our Australian community was attacked in December, and we need to have their backs and give them the support they need. My heart goes out to those whose lives were cut short and the families…
date: 2026-01-19T18:18:00+00:00

Roads, Veterans | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: In the Nationals we often talk about bringing common sense to Canberra, and I can tell you that this is needed more than ever. The Albanese government doesn't seem to get regional Australia....
encoded: In the Nationals we often talk about bringing common sense to Canberra, and I can tell you that this is needed more than ever. The Albanese government doesn't seem to get regional Australia. They're trying to get farmers to pay for biosecurity, trying to tax unrealised capital gains in the superannuation accounts of farmers and small businesses, and threatening the viability of small pharmacies, which are often the only frontline health services in regional towns. Those attempts all failed, but the backflips are continuing. In another win for common sense, the proposal to drop the default speed on unsigned country roads to 70 kilometres an hour has been dumped. This was a bad idea created in Canberra without any understanding of how regional communities actually live, work and travel. It ignored the realities of regional life: long distances, freight, farm work, emergency services and families who simply can't afford to lose more time on the road. It was an idea so bad there was not only pushback from regional communities; regional Labor members didn't want it either. Instead of wasting resources on silly ideas, the government must invest in money to repair and maintain our roads. Regional drivers are fed up with dodging potholes, repairing busted wheels and slowing down at roadworks only to see them washed out after a couple of months. The second backflip, another win for common sense, came with Labor abandoning its attempt to weaken the integrity of the Defence honours and awards appeals system. I want to pay tribute to my colleague the member for Gippsland, a champion of veterans, for leading the campaign against those changes. Veterans who contacted me were worried, frustrated and feeling overlooked, and these changes would have stripped rights away from the very people who have served our nation. There are a number of people who wouldn't have received much-deserved awards had these changes been in place for some years. Thankfully, they're not going to be in pla…
date: 2025-11-27T10:18:00+00:00

Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: I too rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Bill 2025. This bill will insert a new section into the Migration Act 1958 that authorises the secretary of the...
encoded: I too rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Bill 2025. This bill will insert a new section into the Migration Act 1958 that authorises the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs to publish a public register containing the details of employee sponsorship of skilled migrants. The bill title attempts to link this register to combating migrant exploitation. I have no issue with combating migrant exploitation or the exploitation of any workers. But particularly vulnerable people who are coming from overseas to work in our industries need to be protected. That is something that is believed on that side of the House and it is something that is believed on this side of the House. I have worked in horticultural industries for a great many years and I have seen a lot of good work on both sides from good people who want to make sure that the people who come from overseas to work in our industries are protected. I'm confident in saying many farmers and businesses in my electorate of Nicholls who welcome migrant workers feel exactly the same way. Skilled migration, whether temporary or permanent, has always been about benefiting both sides of the equation. Farms and businesses facing critical workforce shortages are able to access skills and labour, and migrants are able to access jobs, be paid a fair wage and work under fair employment conditions. We have history of this. This is basically what built the electorate I now represent. Anytime anyone turned up in Australia, even before World War II, from the Albanian community, where were they sent? They were sent to where there was requirement for what was then unskilled labour. Those people often came to the Goulburn Valley, which was a burgeoning irrigation district that had a lot of dairy farms, a lot of fruit orchards. After the war, people from the United Kingdom, southern Europe, the subcontinent, the Middle East and now from Africa and parts of Asia have been welcomed in the Goulbur…
date: 2025-11-26T18:59:00+00:00

Gnarly Neighbours | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: I make this 90-second statement today as part of Gnarly Neighbours' Gnarly90 campaign, which raises awareness of youth mental health and encourages everyone to take action. The campaign, run by...
encoded: I make this 90-second statement today as part of Gnarly Neighbours' Gnarly90 campaign, which raises awareness of youth mental health and encourages everyone to take action. The campaign, run by Jayden Sheridan of Seymour, from my electorate, invites people to get involved in their own way with 90 minutes, 90 actions, 90 skate tricks or even just 90 seconds to support young people and show they are not alone. Jayden grew up without stability or support, and he built Gnarly Neighbours so that young people today don't have to face the same struggles he did. Gnarly Neighbours gives kids a safe place to go—a place where they can learn to skate, be creative, talk to mentors and feel part of the community. Their neighbourhood space in Seymour includes a cafe, a print shop, a skates store and an indoor skate park, with every dollar going straight back to free youth programs. They also run an employment program that gives young people real jobs, real skills and the confidence that they can build a life for themselves. Disconnection and isolation put young people at serious risk, and suicide is now the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 24. That's why supporting programs like Gnarly Neighbours matters. They create safe spaces where young people can grow, connect and find their way. I sincerely thank Jayden Sheridan and the whole Gnarly Neighbours team for their incredible work. Their dedication gives young people belonging, opportunity and a chance to thrive.
date: 2025-11-26T13:42:00+00:00

Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025, Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: She's a wonderful saxophone player, and our coalition will not be torn apart, Member for Wannon. We need to raise more than just a glass to the brewers. The Australian beer industry generates $16...
encoded: She's a wonderful saxophone player, and our coalition will not be torn apart, Member for Wannon. We need to raise more than just a glass to the brewers. The Australian beer industry generates $16 billion a year for Australia's economy and supports nearly 176,000 jobs. Of those jobs, 126,300 are in hospitality. This bill is important, and we support it, because beer is a good part of Australia's culture. When Mick Dundee was in a bar in New York, an American came up and said, 'Hey, what's going down?' His reply was: 'Oh, yeah, mate. I'm just blowing the froth off a couple.' There are people blowing the froth off a couple all around Australia and, as much as that's a fun thing to do, it generates economic activity for a lot of people and for a lot of industries. But I think we can do more to help industry generally. For the farming industries that supply to the brewing industry, the people who are supplying infrastructure such as Furphy tanks to the industry and the people who are out there marketing and selling the beer, we can do more to help them. We should do that by reviewing how we tax alcohol in general, whether it's fair and whether there are unintended consequences, and what we can do to stimulate Australia's art scene, and get back to more socialisation—from before the pandemic, back in the old days—stimulate the industry and particularly stimulate the hospitality industry, because those jobs, those people and those businesses are hugely important to Australia's economy and culture.
date: 2025-11-25T16:18:00+00:00

Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025, Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I rise to speak on the Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the associated bill. From the outset, I make it clear that the beer relief offered by these bills is a bit of a...
encoded: I rise to speak on the Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the associated bill. From the outset, I make it clear that the beer relief offered by these bills is a bit of a 'Furphy', but it is very important; I'll come back to that shortly. I love a beer, like many Australians. Indeed, I co-chair the Parliamentary Friends of Brewing group with my good friend the member for Cunningham. We co-hosted a Parliamentary Friends of Brewing event this week. But beer isn't all about consumption; beer is good for the economy. The Australian brewing industry spends around $500 million on domestically sourced agricultural ingredients such as barley and hops. A lot of that barley is grown in my electorate of Nicholls. Some of the hops is grown in Tasmania, and a lot of it's grown in the electorate of Indi, around the Mansfield area. Agriculture is at the heart of the beer supply chain, and around five per cent of all beer is made in Australia for local consumption with wholly Australian beer supply chains. We did a brewers tour of Nicholls, and I was honoured to have people—among them the member for Casey, the member for Monash and some Victorian parliamentarians—come and visit a barley grower in a place called Dookie, the Shepparton Brewery and, very importantly, J Furphy & Sons, which makes the tanks that a lot of beer is brewed in around Australia. J Furphy & Sons has been manufacturing in Australia since 1864 and is one of Australia's oldest continuously operating family businesses. Furphy water carts are world famous, and the tank ends are highly collectible. Consistently embossed on the tank ends is a little poem: Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Till your good is better and your better best. In many ways that reflects the endeavour and entrepreneurial spirit that took root across the region as one of the world's greatest irrigation schemes breathed new life into the Goulburn and Murray valleys. The Furphy water cart also gave rise to the term 'furphy'…
date: 2025-11-25T16:18:00+00:00

Aged Care | Motions | House debates
type: item
description: I move: That this House: (1) notes the failure of the Government to deliver adequate aged care beds, with only 802 new residential aged care beds despite an annual need for more than 10,000 new...
encoded: I move: That this House: (1) notes the failure of the Government to deliver adequate aged care beds, with only 802 new residential aged care beds despite an annual need for more than 10,000 new beds; (2) condemns the Government for forcing older Australians to remain in hospital beds with no medical need, leaving them 'effectively homeless' due to a severe shortage of aged care placements, at the expense of other patients needing urgent care; (3) acknowledges the serious warnings from state health ministers, including from New South Wales and South Australian ministers, that this failure is blocking hospital beds, contributing to bed block in emergency departments, cancelled surgeries, and gridlock across public hospital systems; and (4) further notes that the Government claims to be investing in aged care but the current approach is clearly failing older Australians, hospital staff and patients, and demonstrates yet another example of the Government announcing big promises without delivering the necessary outcomes. The Albanese government's lack of investment in residential aged care has been laid bare. Residential aged care supply increased by just 578 beds in 2024-25, less than one-tenth of the 10,600 additional places needed per year to meet demand as projected by the department. The Boxwell & Co analysis confirms that Australia's aged-care supply crisis has reached a critical tipping point, with occupancy levels hitting 94.4 per cent and full capacity projected within three years. Three states—New South Wales, WA and Tasmania—have had no growth at all; in fact, they went backwards. They have had a net decrease in aged-care beds thanks to Labor. Already, the failure of the Albanese government to open new beds is leaving elderly people stranded in hospitals when they should be recuperating and staying in an aged-care bed. The state and territory leaders held an emergency meeting last week on aged-care beds and hospitals. The Queensland and Tasmanian premiers spec…
date: 2025-11-24T17:11:00+00:00

Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: Straight to the pool room!
encoded: Straight to the pool room!
date: 2025-11-24T16:43:00+00:00

Hansen Yuncken | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: I'd like to send my warmest congratulations to the incredible team at Hansen Yuncken on 100 years of continuous building excellence in Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley. For a century, Hansen...
encoded: I'd like to send my warmest congratulations to the incredible team at Hansen Yuncken on 100 years of continuous building excellence in Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley. For a century, Hansen Yuncken has bee more than just a construction company. Founded by Lauritz Hansen and Otto Yuncken with a simple handshake, the company has been a vital part of our community, shaping the places where we live, work, learn and come together. From early projects with Ardmona and Kyabram cannery to modern facilities like the Greater Shepparton Secondary College, All Saints Anglican School and the Goulburn Valley hospital accommodation project, their work has left a lasting mark on our region. Equally important is the ongoing commitment to the people of Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley. Employing local tradies, supporting local suppliers and fostering opportunities for young apprentices has strengthened our community and ensured that skills and expertise stay in our region. It's always a delight to see Hansen Yuncken signs when you drive past a building site, because you know local tradies are being employed, local businesses are being supported and our community is benefiting. The company is now visible across Australia, where you will find their projects at the centre of everyday life, from universities and schools to iconic arts precincts, commercial and industrial buildings and public buildings for Defence and the Australian Tax Office. This century is not only a celebration of past achievements but also a recognition of the values that have guided Hansen Yuncken's journey: trust, excellence and connection to the local community. On behalf of all the residents of Nicholls, I want to acknowledge the generations of Hansen and Yuncken families and the countless staff past and present who have contributed to their remarkable legacy across Shepparton, the Goulburn Valley and now, indeed, Australia. Congratulations on 100 years of success, service, commitment and making sure local …
date: 2025-11-05T10:06:00+00:00

Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: I rise also to speak on the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025. In describing this bill and what Labor is doing, I think I'd paraphrase a Pink Floyd song called 'Shine On You Crazy...
encoded: I rise also to speak on the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025. In describing this bill and what Labor is doing, I think I'd paraphrase a Pink Floyd song called 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'. My paraphrasing would be: Labor is saying that we'll bask in the shadows of secrecy and concealment, riding on a clandestine dream. With this bill, the Albanese government is trying to dodge scrutiny, and the bill will normalise the use of fees for freedom of information, reducing transparency and accountability. Only last week, we saw a perfect example of the government's love of secrecy. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, under political and public pressure, finally released his incoming government brief. This brief was heavily redacted. In some sections, page after page was completely blank. It was real Watergate-era stuff. Now, energy is a critical issue for Australia, and the Australian public deserves to know the truth about Labor's energy transition. They see the outcomes in higher energy bills, but they should also be told the truth about Labor's transition, how it is going, and what advice the minister has received about the cost—the cost of energy being such a critical part of Australia's future prosperity. Instead, we get a briefing paper with massive information gaps. And this bill will make things worse. Under Labor, there's been a surge in FOI refusals. Non-disclosure agreements are used in consultations, the Senate orders for production of documents are flouted, and the Prime Minister cut opposition staffing, making it harder to hold the government to account. These changes have been rightly described as a 'truth tax'. Firstly, there's a ban on anonymous requests. This bill prohibits anonymous FOI applications, requiring all applicants to declare their identity. This eliminates the ability for whistleblowers—who may be in fear for various reasons—or vulnerable individuals to request documents without revealing themselves. There are also mandatory …
date: 2025-11-04T19:40:00+00:00

Dismissal of the Whitlam Government: 50th Anniversary | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I want to thank the member for Werriwa for bringing this motion on. It's very exciting for those of us who follow Australian history to talk about this, and it must be a great honour to represent...
encoded: I want to thank the member for Werriwa for bringing this motion on. It's very exciting for those of us who follow Australian history to talk about this, and it must be a great honour to represent an electorate that had such a significant person in Australian politics as one of its former members. I was seven months old when the dismissal happened. I'll give personal recollections at some point. The 1972 election was a significant moment, when the Whitlam government was elected. It had been 1951 since the coalition had previously governed. One of the notable things about when the Whitlam government came in was a sworn-in ministry of two people—a duumvirate—of Gough Whitlam and Lance Barnard passing a lot of the legislation they'd promised in those first few weeks. There's no doubt the Whitlam government achieved some significant things in modernising Australia, recognising China and having a focus on the arts, and they need to be congratulated for that. Obviously, there was a debate between the two sides of politics leading to a 1974 double-dissolution election, which Whitlam won with a reduced majority but also some very close numbers in the Senate, which was to become such a sticking point as we entered 1975. This is where the Whitlam government started to get into trouble with ministers who, with the probably noble intentions of developing Australia's resource sector, had funny ideas about how to finance that, including Rex Connor and Jim Cairns going to try and get a loan from a Pakistani loan broker, Tirath Khemlani, who promised to finance some of these projects from some pretty strange parts of the word. Of course, that was against the convention of the Treasury at the time. The loans affair did eventually start to cause the Whitlam government a lot of problems. It was said of Gough Whitlam, I think, that he was a totally honest and decent man who expected everyone else to be as honest and decent as he was, and that was to his own undoing. Anyway, he was force…
date: 2025-11-03T18:47:00+00:00

Energy | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: Australia needs an energy plan that is cheaper, better and fairer. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the prosperity of our nation. Energy is the economy, so to ensure the...
encoded: Australia needs an energy plan that is cheaper, better and fairer. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the prosperity of our nation. Energy is the economy, so to ensure the prosperity of our nation, the government needs to focus on making sure that energy is affordable and energy is reliable. This is particularly evident in my electorate of Nicholls, which has significant manufacturing facilities, both for food and for other goods, who are very reliant on energy, both electricity and gas. Those prices are going up significantly. Electricity prices are up by 39 per cent, and gas prices are up by 46 per cent. That threatens the viability of these industries in my electorate and manufacturing industries across Australia. When the viability of these industries in Australia is threatened, they don't just stop doing what they're doing; they pack up what they're doing in Australia and they go and do it somewhere else. Emissions stay high, but Australia's economic future is damaged irrevocably. We need a plan which is cheaper, better and fairer.
date: 2025-11-03T16:39:00+00:00

Local Content Broadcasting | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: Australia has a proud history of locally produced content. Many shows have told great Australian stories. During that golden era of serialised drama on TV, we've had favourites like A Town Like...
encoded: Australia has a proud history of locally produced content. Many shows have told great Australian stories. During that golden era of serialised drama on TV, we've had favourites like A Town Like Alice; Bodyline, the story of that famous Ashes series; The Cowra Breakout; Anzacs; The Dunera Boys, about the amazing contribution and the prisoner of war camp in Hay. Who could forget the Aussie classic All the Rivers Run, filmed on the mighty Murray River at Echuca in my electorate? We watched them all for free on TV. Now we have choice, with endless streaming services. It's changed since you used to stay up and watch Channel 6 or Channel 3, which is all I had. But do we have more Aussie drama to watch? No, we don't. In 2022, the Albanese government went to the election saying it would promote Australian creators on streaming platforms. In 2023, the Albanese government committed to legislating local content quotas for streaming services, with commencement in 2024, but, just like gambling advertisement reforms, nothing has happened in this area to promote Aussie content. I back Australian drama. Get behind it, Labor; we're all watching.
date: 2025-11-03T13:55:00+00:00

Economy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: In the face of some of the political rhetoric and game playing that goes on, particularly from that side, I want to talk about some real Australians, real people. Hamish is a dairy farmer in my...
encoded: In the face of some of the political rhetoric and game playing that goes on, particularly from that side, I want to talk about some real Australians, real people. Hamish is a dairy farmer in my electorate. He gets up at 4.30 every morning and milks approximately 500 cows. In the winter it's icy cold in the dairy. It's dirty. There are a lot of flies in the summer. At 3 pm he gets the cows in and does it all again. It's tough work, but he loves it. He loves producing clean, healthy food for Australia. After the afternoon milking, he goes out again and irrigates his paddocks, sometimes well into the night. Hamish is really worried that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan changes by this government will reduce the amount of irrigation water and push prices up, making dairy farming even more difficult. Hamish pays a lot of tax, and the produce earns a lot of tax for Australia when it's exported. Matt is a fruit grower. He pays a lot of tax. He works really hard, and he barely sleeps during the harvest season. The energy bills for his coolstores, required to run 24/7, are going through the roof. His employee is originally from India. He works long hours, earning good money, to get ahead in his new country, and he pays a lot of tax. Tom is from Gunnedah. He manages an engineering firm that does a lot of work for mining and energy companies. He works seven days a week and endures a lot of stress, with the price of everything going up, and that's been getting a lot worse in the last three years. He pays a lot of tax. When the government indulges in wasteful spending and threatens private enterprises, I want those opposite to think about Hamish, Matt and Tom and their employees, and all those people paying tax and doing difficult jobs that are essential to Australia's economic prosperity. The philosophy of this government is that everything is free. But nothing is truly free; someone has to pay for it, and often it's the blood, sweat and tears of Australians taking a risk, working…
date: 2025-10-30T15:32:00+00:00

Rural and Regional Health Services | Adjournment | House debates
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description: Last week in Perth I spoke at RMA25, a conference co-hosted by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia. I spent most of the day...
encoded: Last week in Perth I spoke at RMA25, a conference co-hosted by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia. I spent most of the day listening—I think we could do more listening and less talking as members of parliament—to health professionals from across Australia. This is what I delivered as part of my address. In regional health, good public policy is partnership. And that partnership is really important in the regions. Regional communities are great places to live because people are connected and care for one another. Communities are invested in the health services that they have. Too often those services are very hard won and never taken for granted. But what we do have is workforce challenges. I've observed a consistent shortfall in the health workforce outside metropolitan areas. It's worth noting at this point that regional, rural and remote areas cannot always be lumped into one category. They have their own individual challenges and idiosyncrasies, and the Modified Monash Model has attempted to put a framework around this in order to prioritise areas of most need. This can work well when governments have the ethos of respecting that, but there have been examples lately where there has been an attempt to pay the Modified Monash Model lip service, and I believe this has led—and will continue to lead—to poorer outcomes for people outside regional areas. An example of this is the distribution priority area classification and the limited number of medical bonded doctors and overseas trained doctors available to be deployed into areas of workforce need. This has significantly shrunk under the Albanese government's changes to the Modified Monash Model. Automatic inclusion of MM2 as a district priority area has made an incentive that was previously exclusive to rural and remote towns available to regional centres and, perversely, to some areas that are on the fringe of major capital cities. Along with the dist…
date: 2025-10-27T19:49:00+00:00