Steph Hodgins-May'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: Labor Government | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Banning Dirty Donations) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Banning Dirty Donations) Bill 2026; First Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide | Motions | Senate debates
items: Better Together Social Connection Program, Energy, International Relations: Australia and Israel | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Environment and Communications References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
items: Housing | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
items: Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Bondi Beach: Attack | Condolences | Senate debates
items: Education | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: g23.1
items: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
items: Windsor Community Children's Centre, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Gas Industry | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Minister for Climate Change and Energy | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
items: Housing | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
items: Economics References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
items: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
items: Energy | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates

Labor Government | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: Australians woke up this week to another interest rate rise, and they know exactly what that means for their wallets. Mortgage holders are being pushed closer to the edge, and renters are next in...
encoded: Australians woke up this week to another interest rate rise, and they know exactly what that means for their wallets. Mortgage holders are being pushed closer to the edge, and renters are next in line as landlords pass on the pain. Families are already making impossible choices—rent or groceries, child care or health care—just to keep a roof over their heads. Then we learnt that Labor are selling off public Defence land, including Victoria Barracks, to patch up the budget that they've blown. Public land that could help ease the housing crisis is to be sold off instead of used for public housing. It'll be handed to private developers while more public housing towers face demolition in my state. You are ripping the public off, and, honestly, can anyone still be surprised? This is a government that hands out tax breaks willy-nilly to wealthy property investors that inflate house prices and lock renters out of ownership. It's a government that takes donations from gas giants while energy prices soar and that subsidises fossil fuel companies and then claims that there's no money left for housing. There are billions for submarines that may never arrive, but nurses, teachers and early educators can't afford to live where they work. There are millions for multinational consultants, but there's no budget for public housing, schools or community safety. Let's be clear. The money exists, and this is about priorities. Australians aren't locked out of homes because they are poor; they're locked out because this government keeps heading public wealth to the corporations driving the crisis. People have every right to be angry—and they are. They are being priced out of housing, squeezed on energy and told to tighten their belts while others cash in. The Greens will keep fighting for homes that people can actually afford, for lower bills and for a government that puts communities before corporations.
date: 2026-02-05T13:46:00+00:00

Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: The question is that the bill be read a second time.
encoded: The question is that the bill be read a second time.
date: 2026-02-05T12:49:00+00:00

Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Banning Dirty Donations) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill. Leave granted. I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the...
encoded: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill. Leave granted. I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speech read as follows— I welcome the opportunity to re-introduce this bill today, and continue our efforts to get big money out of politics. I acknowledge the important work done on this issue by my colleague Senator Larissa Waters, as well as former Senators Lee Rhiannon and Richard Di Natale, academics, and civil society organisations that have assisted in the development of this bill previously. I also note that electoral reform passed last year after a last-minute backroom deal with the Coalition. That deal kept the disclosure threshold far too high and refused to wind in donations from harmful industries with a history of seeking to influence decision-makers. This bill seeks to go further than that weak, compromised legislation, restoring some important integrity to our democratic processes. If passed, this bill would stop dirty industries—those with a track record of using donations to shape policy and gain access—from making political donations. These include the fossil fuel, banking, defence, pharmaceutical, liquor, tobacco, and gambling industries. The bill also limits individual donations to $3,000 per election term, dramatically reducing the ability of wealthy individuals or entities to buy influence and ensuring a fairer, more representative political system. There has never been a more urgent time for donation reform. Trust in parliament and in politicians is at an all-time low. Australians are increasingly convinced that their representatives serve corporate donors rather than the public interest. This bill is grounded not just in principle, but in evidence. In December 2024, the Centre for Public Integrity published Hey, Big Spender: What 25 years of political party income disclosures reveal, …
date: 2026-02-04T18:27:00+00:00

Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Banning Dirty Donations) Bill 2026; First Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: I move: That the following bill be introduced: A Bill for an Act to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, and for related purposes. Question agreed to. I present the bill and move: That this...
encoded: I move: That the following bill be introduced: A Bill for an Act to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, and for related purposes. Question agreed to. I present the bill and move: That this bill may proceed without formalities and be now read a first time. Question agreed to. Bill read a first time.
date: 2026-02-04T18:26:00+00:00

Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide | Motions | Senate debates
type: item
description: Order! The time for this debate has expired. The question is that the amendment moved by Senator Chisholm be agreed to. Question agreed to. Original question, as amended, agreed to.
encoded: Order! The time for this debate has expired. The question is that the amendment moved by Senator Chisholm be agreed to. Question agreed to. Original question, as amended, agreed to.
date: 2026-02-04T10:41:00+00:00

Better Together Social Connection Program, Energy, International Relations: Australia and Israel | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: In my home of Port Phillip, the local council will soon vote on whether to end or continue developing aged social inclusion services through the better together program, a community based social...
encoded: In my home of Port Phillip, the local council will soon vote on whether to end or continue developing aged social inclusion services through the better together program, a community based social connection program funded under the Commonwealth Home Support Program. The prospect that the council may walk away from a proven model, only to replace it with something that will ultimately cost more, is deeply concerning and a real shame for the city of Port Phillip. As a user of the program said: It has reduced our loneliness and isolation. We became friends with other participants and staff who are kind and caring. We felt a greater level of community connection and cohesion. We felt that we belong. People who rely on the better together program to stay active and avoid isolation are rightly worried. They fear a decline in quality and accessibility, along with higher personal costs, outcomes that have become all too common in aged care. I urge the City of Port Phillip to continue providing these social inclusion services in their current form to protect the quality, continuity and accountability that public delivery provides, and I urge the Labor government to confront the broader aged-care crisis, as my colleague Senator Allman-Payne has. We must properly fund public and community based care and end the overreliance on for-profit providers from early childhood right through to aged care. Our communities deserve nothing less. Think Australia's emissions are insignificant? The Otway Basin acreage release has just opened 2.5 million hectares of Southern Ocean waters to gas exploration—exploration by multinational corporations with a track record of pillaging our environment, shipping gas overseas and not even cleaning up after themselves. We are the third-largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world, and the coalition thinks that's great. 'If we're going to be climate criminals,' they figure, 'we might as well get away with the money.' Except we don't. We export the vast …
date: 2026-02-03T19:49:00+00:00

Environment and Communications References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: I want to thank my colleague Senator Hanson-Young for this vital referral for a committee inquiry. Here we are again, confronting an industry so deeply embedded in our politics it feels like...
encoded: I want to thank my colleague Senator Hanson-Young for this vital referral for a committee inquiry. Here we are again, confronting an industry so deeply embedded in our politics it feels like trying to pry open steel with our bare hands. Gambling isn't only hurting Australians; it is shaping our politics in ways that should concern us and make us very, very mad. Despite the overwhelming evidence of the damage that gambling causes, especially to young people and to vulnerable communities, this government continues to drag its heels. It has been more than two years since an inquiry delivered 31 unanimous recommendations. The evidence is there, the political cover is there, and yet almost nothing has changed—not because the facts and the evidence are unclear but because the gambling lobby is louder and it's richer. And it is far more present in these halls than the people being hurt by gambling. Let's be clear; the gambling lobby has more influence on the Labor Party than Labor's own members, not to mention its voters. The gambling industry is the most prolific lobby group in this country. The Australian Leadership Index shows that they've got 280 lobbyists crawling around Canberra, more than double those from any other harmful industry. When hundreds of paid advocates are knocking on doors, drafting briefs and shaping narratives every day, reform doesn't stall by accident; it stalls by design. The money doesn't end with lobbying. It flows through the corporate boxes, free tickets, exclusive events—privileges that everyday Australians do not see but captured politicians do. In just two years, Labor and coalition MPs were showered with $245,000 in free sports tickets by organisations opposing a gambling advertising ban. The Prime Minister personally accepted close to $29,000, and Peter Dutton over $21,000. It's influence dressed up as generosity. Imagine being a Labor MP, defending the gambling industry, pretending it's your actual view and not influenced by the truckloa…
date: 2026-02-03T19:00:00+00:00

Housing | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: How do you claim to tackle the housing and cost-of-living crises while handing out $360 billion for imaginary subs? How do you say you're easing pressure on families, when one in three big...
encoded: How do you claim to tackle the housing and cost-of-living crises while handing out $360 billion for imaginary subs? How do you say you're easing pressure on families, when one in three big corporations pay less tax than a nurse, without upsetting billionaire donors? It's tricky. How do you choose between helping a single parent who can't afford rent or giving yet another tax break to her landlord? How do you tell Gina Rinehart or Anthony Pratt that they might need to pay more tax because nurses and teachers can't put food on the table after paying theirs? Apparently, the answer is simple. Billionaires make massive political donations. Nurses and teachers don't. Inflation isn't driven by a nurse's pay rise; it's driven by corporate greed. The major parties would rather see your mortgage explode than rein in the property moguls in this country. They would rather protect fossil fuel donors than cut your energy bills. It is the same hypocrisy and the same excuses. We must end property investor tax breaks and curb the power of billionaires and corporations, and we must put housing and households first. It seems pretty bloody simple. Families don't need excuses; they need relief. All we need is some courage and some leadership from this government.
date: 2026-02-03T18:08:00+00:00

Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: Gun reform is certainly not the whole solution to keeping us safer, but it is a crucial first step taking away one of the most dangerous tools used to cause harm. It is a step that I would have...
encoded: Gun reform is certainly not the whole solution to keeping us safer, but it is a crucial first step taking away one of the most dangerous tools used to cause harm. It is a step that I would have assumed uncontroversial in the wake of the tragic events in Bondi. That is why this bill, the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026, has the support of the Australian Greens. Right now Australia's firearms laws contain serious loopholes that allow gun owners to endlessly recycle the same justification to accumulate dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of guns. No sensible regime should allow what are basically private arsenals of this scale to exist in our suburbs. It is entirely indefensible. A farmer needs access to a gun, sure—one gun, a few guns—for legitimate purposes. But 100 guns—why? To the opposition senators opposing these reforms, I ask a simple question: why does a farmer need 100 guns? This isn't just about whether ownership is technically lawful; it is about scale, concentration and risk. It is also about the very real possibility of firearms being stolen or misused. Every year more than 2,000 guns are stolen. That is one gun every four hours. Most illegal guns come from thefts of legally owned firearms. To put it simply, the more legal guns there are, the more illegal guns end up in the wrong hands. We cannot talk honestly about gun reform without recognising the warning signs that have too often gone unheard. For decades women and domestic violence survivors have warned us about the danger of firearms in violent homes. They've told us again and again that access to guns escalates threats into fatalities, yet our own gun laws have remained too weak and too fragmented. We also cannot ignore the influence of the gun lobby in this country. Per capita it spends amounts comparable to, and by some measures even higher than, the NRA in the United States. Just like in the US, that influence has worked to stall reform and norma…
date: 2026-01-20T18:02:00+00:00

Bondi Beach: Attack | Condolences | Senate debates
type: item
description: Like all of us in this chamber today, I rise with a heavy heart. The first night of Hanukkah was meant to be a time of light, reflection and joy. Instead, it has become one of the darkest days in...
encoded: Like all of us in this chamber today, I rise with a heavy heart. The first night of Hanukkah was meant to be a time of light, reflection and joy. Instead, it has become one of the darkest days in our nation's history and a moment of profound national heartbreak. We grieve for the 15 innocent people who were murdered at Bondi, for those who were injured and for all of their families, friends and communities affected by this tragedy. Seeing the footage affected us in ways that can't be described. It's sickening, heart-wrenching and tearful when you see a 10-year-old girl, someone's daughter, or someone's father and grandfather—brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, close friends—killed because of what they believed in. I extend my deepest condolences to the Jewish community here in Australia and around the world who are reeling from the shock and pain of this devastating antisemitic attack. I grieve alongside the strong Jewish communities in my home state of Victoria. Among those killed were people who showed extraordinary courage in the face of terror, including Boris and Sofia Gurman, who resisted the armed gunmen. Their bravery must be remembered alongside the horror of that day. This was an attack on Jewish people. It was an attack on all of us. It was an act of hatred intended to divide, to instil fear and to undermine our shared way of life—but it is not who we are. Who we are is seen in the first responders who ran towards danger. Who we are is reflected in those who intervened to stop the gunmen. Who we are is found in people of different faiths, backgrounds and beliefs who have come together in solidarity, care and compassion. The specific targeting of people because of their faith, echoing the atrocity faced by our neighbours in Christchurch, was an act of terrorism aimed squarely at identity and belief. It's deeply disturbing that the terrorism we have seen overseas has occurred here, on our iconic beach, directed at Jewish people. As members of this parliamen…
date: 2026-01-19T15:32:00+00:00

Education | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: Have you ever wondered why primary schools need to host Bunnings sausage sizzles? It is because of government failure. 'But it's okay; our kids are used to being tossed aside and monetised by the...
encoded: Have you ever wondered why primary schools need to host Bunnings sausage sizzles? It is because of government failure. 'But it's okay; our kids are used to being tossed aside and monetised by the time they reach primary school.' We have let the for-profit childcare sector turn our early learning into a money-making machine for domestic and foreign corporations. Then our kids roll up to underfunded primary schools while this government refuses to tax our coal and gas exports to pay for the things that we need. 'Sorry, teachers, there'll be no pay rise again this year. The government has already handed that money over to the likes of Woodside.' While teachers are doing $11.5 billion in unpaid work to keep schools functioning, most of them still pay more tax than big fossil fuel giants. It's outrageous. If our kids make it through school without a gambling addiction due to this government's inability to regulate gambling advertising while taking donations from Sportsbet and Tabcorp, they might make it to uni, where government starts paying attention because they can make money off uni students. 'Hey, $50,000 bachelor degrees are completely reasonable, kids. Education isn't free—anymore.' But our uni students are doing an important and patriotic job for this Labor government: they're giving the government more money from their student debt payments than the government collects from the petroleum resource rent tax, which is great, because students can afford it and we wouldn't want to burden those innovative startups like BHP, Chevron and Santos, would we? This government is selling out our kids for their big corporate buddies and political donors. Make no mistake about it. Our kids' early education should not be monetised. We shouldn't need to fundraise for our primary schools at our primary schools. Uni shouldn't be a debt sentence. We should ban corporate donations, make the big corporations and the billionaires pay their fair share, and make education free, accessibl…
date: 2025-11-27T13:54:00+00:00

g23.1
type: item
title: Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, Environment Information Australia Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Excise Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (General Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
description: I rise in support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and related bills. They are stronger than what Labor first put on the table, stronger because the Greens, backed by communities...
encoded: I rise in support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and related bills. They are stronger than what Labor first put on the table, stronger because the Greens, backed by communities right across this country, who've been working for decades, joined and led this campaign. They're stronger because experts and advocates across the country refused to let them be written by big coal and gas, logging operations and lobbyists. But let's be absolutely clear: while we have secured important improvements for nature, this package of bills still fails. It fails to properly protect our climate. Labor began this process with a wish list for corporate environmental destruction. Their first draft would have taken us backwards. It would have created a fast track for coal and gas, handed corporations new loopholes and locked in a system where approval came first and environmental protection was an afterthought. It was package of bills written for big corporations, not for people and not for country. The Greens said no. We held firm, and the community held firm with us. Because of that, we have won significant gains for our environment. These bills now finally, after decades, end the special treatment for native forest logging. We've closed off the ability for coal and gas companies to use Labor's fast track pathways or to exploit the national interest loophole. These are real improvements. They take us forward and make these bills infinitely better than if Labor had done a deal with the climate deniers in the coalition. But let me be equally direct: these significant but small wins for nature are not the wins we need for our precious climate. Labor have refused point-blank to include a climate trigger. They've refused to allow the environment minister to consider the climate damage of new coal and gas projects—dirty, polluting coal and gas projects—in this country. They've refused, despite overwhelming public support and strong evidence that our environment laws must confr…
date: 2025-11-27T10:50:00+00:00

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: Science isn't failing; the government is failing science. They ignore warnings from climate scientists, they sideline experts and now they're letting our national science agency be gutted....
encoded: Science isn't failing; the government is failing science. They ignore warnings from climate scientists, they sideline experts and now they're letting our national science agency be gutted. Australia has a scientific legacy to be proud of, from pioneering global agriculture to world-leading Antarctic research and medical breakthroughs like the cochlear implant. First Nations people have stewarded land, water and biodiversity with scientific knowledge stretching back 50,000 years. We are a nation built on science. CSIRO scientists carry that legacy today. They're on the front line of the biggest challenges of our time, from bushfire modelling to fighting antimicrobial resistance and breakthrough work on renewable energy. These are the people building our future, and what does Labor do? They hollow them out. This government should be buffering and celebrating Australian research, not bulldozing it—including by tackling one of the biggest structural barriers in the field: gender inequity in STEM leadership. If we want women to lead in STEM, we need to back them before they hit the glass ceiling. Programs like WILD for STEM show exactly what's possible when we invest early and properly: 100 per cent of participants stay in STEM. More than half secure new roles or promotions, and nearly a third land board positions within a year. Australia's scientists punch way above their weight, even under insecure funding, gender gaps and a global political climate increasingly allergic to the truth. Scientists are the people who can pull us out of climate disasters, pandemics and extinction crises. They get us out of the messes that politicians help to create. So here's the message: you do not slash science. You protect it, you invest in it and you back the people who make Australia smarter and safer.
date: 2025-11-26T17:31:00+00:00

Windsor Community Children's Centre, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Gas Industry | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: Over a year ago, I stood here and urged Labor to save Windsor Community Children's Centre. It's a beloved community-run early learning centre in my home city of Melbourne. After huge pressure...
encoded: Over a year ago, I stood here and urged Labor to save Windsor Community Children's Centre. It's a beloved community-run early learning centre in my home city of Melbourne. After huge pressure from the centre, from the Greens and from the community, Labor promised to save it. They made an election commitment to work with the local council to buy the site from Swinburne University. But, six months on, Windsor is again on the brink. Eighty families and 30 educators could be out by the end of December. Yes, Swinburne needs to accept the offer, but Labor made the promise and must keep it. Labor need to step up, keep their word and stop forcing anxious families back into a fight that they should never have needed to restart. Labor, we are calling on you to work with Swinburne to deliver the solution that you promised. Our community cannot afford another broken commitment. I rise to speak on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Violence against women and girls is not just a crisis; it is one of the most pervasive and devastating human rights violations in the world. Here, in Australia, the reality is devastating. One woman is killed every single week as a result of domestic and family violence. These aren't numbers; they are lives stolen, families shattered and communities grieving. They are a reminder of how far we still have to go. Violence against women doesn't stop at our borders. It is global, it is entrenched and it is escalating. Members of the Hazara community in Melbourne tell me that in Afghanistan millions of women are living under a regime determined to erase them—their education denied, movement restricted and dignity stripped. Every day without freedom is another day of violence. Today I met with members of the Sudanese community, who described the horrors unfolding in el-Fasher in the midst of a horrific humanitarian crisis and ongoing proxy war. We are hearing widespread reports of systematic sexual and gender based violence …
date: 2025-11-25T20:10:00+00:00

Minister for Climate Change and Energy | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
type: item
description: The irony of this motion is obvious to anyone watching from home. The coalition accused the energy minister of prioritising global summits, when clearly they are not doing enough. We failed our...
encoded: The irony of this motion is obvious to anyone watching from home. The coalition accused the energy minister of prioritising global summits, when clearly they are not doing enough. We failed our COP bid, and the Prime Minister didn't even bother turning up to the world's biggest climate meeting. Our chance to lead the region went up in smoke because of weak leadership and a climate rhetoric that collapses under scrutiny. I'm no fan of Labor, but I do find it ironic that the same people who are in the comments sections and on the coalition benches ridiculing domestic climate action because Australia is too small to make a difference are now angry that Australia is going to put effort into global climate action at the COP. 'Australian emissions are too small to save the planet,' they said last week while abandoning net zero. 'Focus on Australia,' they say this week, completely undermining their own clown show. Well, here is some good news for the climate deniers on the coalition benches: Labor doesn't really have a plan for climate action either. They take donations from the same fossil fuel industries, they take the same jobs after politics and they approve the same giant fossil fuel projects stretching out to 2070. Let's be clear. While coalition hypocrisy is loud, Labor's complicity is quiet, but it is just as destructive. One of their own members even admitted this week that our gas export regime is absurd. Here is a fact that every Australian deserves to hear: no gas export project has ever paid a cent of petroleum resource rent tax. The government collects more from HECS—off the backs of our students—than from the PRRT. Now that is a failure of national policy! Despite all of the scare campaigns, 99.7 per cent of Australians do not work in the oil and gas industry, yet our national energy policy continues to be written for them. Meanwhile, tying domestic supply to volatile global gas markets keeps pushing up prices for Australian households, all while Australia's…
date: 2025-11-25T18:36:00+00:00

Housing | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: Across Australia too many people, especially young people and older women, are being pushed into housing stress, couch surfing and homelessness. Housing is a human right. Your age, your income or...
encoded: Across Australia too many people, especially young people and older women, are being pushed into housing stress, couch surfing and homelessness. Housing is a human right. Your age, your income or your postcode should not determine whether or not you get a secure roof over your head. But the housing crisis didn't just happen; it is the result of political choices. For decades governments—Labor and Liberal—have designed a system that delivers billions to big banks and property developers whilst locking out a whole generation from the opportunity for secure housing. We saw this clearly in Victoria with Labor's plan to bulldoze 44 public housing towers and hand over public land to private developers. The human cost of these choices is simply devastating. Every year, nearly 40,000 children and young people in Australia have nowhere to live. At the same time, women aged over 55 are the fastest-growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness in Australia. In one of the richest countries in the world, this is nothing short of shameful. The Greens fought hard in the last parliament and secured $3 billion in extra funding for public and community housing and an additional $500 million for urgent social housing upgrades. This was significant, but it's simply not enough. Young people are falling through the cracks, especially those leaving out-of-home care. At 18, many are effectively shown the door and left to fend for themselves. It's no wonder that so many of these young people end up homeless. Single older women are among the most marginalised when it comes to safe, affordable and suitable housing. Lifelong disadvantages, such as the gender pay gap, caring responsibilities and lower paid work, leave them vulnerable. Research shows older women, especially private renters, are disproportionately trapped in housing that is both unaffordable and poor quality. We must do better. That's why the Home Time campaign is so important. Since launching in 2024, more than 150 services…
date: 2025-11-24T20:10:00+00:00

Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: The committee is considering the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025 as amended and amendment 2 on sheet 3481 moved by Senator Thorpe. The question...
encoded: The committee is considering the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025 as amended and amendment 2 on sheet 3481 moved by Senator Thorpe. The question is that schedule 5 stand as printed.
date: 2025-11-24T19:41:00+00:00

Economics References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: There are no further speakers. The question is that the motion put by Senator Roberts be agreed to. A division is required. We will defer that division to tomorrow. Debate adjourned.
encoded: There are no further speakers. The question is that the motion put by Senator Roberts be agreed to. A division is required. We will defer that division to tomorrow. Debate adjourned.
date: 2025-11-24T19:30:00+00:00

Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: The question is that the motion moved by Senator Shoebridge be agreed to. Is a division required? It being after 6.30 pm, we will defer that to tomorrow.
encoded: The question is that the motion moved by Senator Shoebridge be agreed to. Is a division required? It being after 6.30 pm, we will defer that to tomorrow.
date: 2025-11-24T19:16:00+00:00

Energy | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
type: item
description: The Australian Energy Council's latest report says its members want a more honest and transparent narrative about the cost of the transition. Well, let's be honest and transparent. The Energy...
encoded: The Australian Energy Council's latest report says its members want a more honest and transparent narrative about the cost of the transition. Well, let's be honest and transparent. The Energy Council doesn't work for consumers; it works for the companies who profit when the transition slows down. And of course these companies are concerned about the speed of the transition, because every year we delay is another year that they can squeeze profits out of coal and gas. But slowing down the transition doesn't make power cheaper. It destroys our economy. It trashes our planet and locks households into expensive gas in a world that is rapidly moving on. Renewable energy is the future. Get with the program or get out of the way. Let me bust some myths. Myth—renewables are expensive. Fact—every credible body, such as the CSIRO, AEMO and the Climate Council, says that wind and solar are now the cheapest form of new electricity generation in Australia by a mile. Wind and solar cost a fraction of new coal and gas. The Clean Energy Council's latest analysis shows that renewables are the cheapest path to lower bills, full stop. Myth—dependence on gas keeps energy prices stable. Fact—gas is a major driver of high bills. When global prices jump, Australian households feel it. Unlike gas, renewables don't link our domestic market to volatile international prices. Since Australia began exporting LNG, domestic gas prices have tripled, and power prices have doubled. Myth—the grid can't handle renewables. Fact—the grid can't handle ageing coal plants falling over. Renewables are predictable. The failures of ageing coal and gas are not. AEMO has been crystal clear that the fastest way to a reliable grid is more wind, more solar and more storage. While we're busting some myths, let's talk about the coalition. Their abandonment of net zero is frankly embarrassing, and it is a betrayal of everyday Australians, who want cheaper bills and a clean energy future. They are trying to outdo Labo…
date: 2025-11-24T18:09:00+00:00