Leah Blyth'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: Energy | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Housing, Interest Rates, Economy | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
items: Administrative Review Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
items: New Vehicle Efficiency Standard | Adjournment | 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: Migration | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Taxation | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Environment and Communications References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
items: Education and Employment Legislation Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
items: Minister for Climate Change and Energy | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
items: Higher Education Support Amendment (End Dirty University Partnerships) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Tackling the Gender Super Gap) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Energy | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Energy | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
items: Regional Security | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
items: Gender and Sexual Orientation | Statements by Senators | Senate debates

Energy | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: Energy bills have become one of the heaviest burdens on Australian families. Everyone I speak to says the same thing. The cost of keeping the lights on, heating and cooling a home, and running a...
encoded: Energy bills have become one of the heaviest burdens on Australian families. Everyone I speak to says the same thing. The cost of keeping the lights on, heating and cooling a home, and running a small business has climbed beyond what ordinary budgets can absorb. It is felt in every quarter, with every bill that slices further into a family's disposable income. Hardworking Australians are now making trade-offs on what were unthinkable things a decade ago. Parents are turning off appliances to protect the grocery budget, seniors are rationing heating in winter and cooling in summer, and small businesses are shutting earlier because power costs make it difficult to stay open those extra trading hours. These are quiet sacrifices, but they speak to a deeper failure—energy policy that has lost contact with reality. Australia should not be a country where abundant natural resources coexist with crippling power prices, yet that is exactly what has happened under Labor. Ideological targets have displaced practical planning. Dispatchable generation has been pushed out faster than it can be replaced. Investment has certainly collapsed. The result is a grid under strain, wholesale prices that move like a seismograph, and consumers forced to pick up the tab for policy experiments that never match the engineering. Lowering energy costs is not a luxury; it's an economic and social necessity. Affordable power is the foundation of manufacturing, the life support of small businesses and the safety net that shields families from cost-of-living shocks. Australians are doing everything they can to cope. A country with our resources should deliver cheaper power, not higher bills. Only the Liberals will get back to affordability, accept reality and restore balance to the energy grid.
date: 2026-02-05T13:30:00+00:00

Housing, Interest Rates, Economy | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
type: item
description: Well, those opposite seem to think the opposition here is responsible for spending, which is news to us and I'm sure news to all Australians, because it is literally the responsibility of...
encoded: Well, those opposite seem to think the opposition here is responsible for spending, which is news to us and I'm sure news to all Australians, because it is literally the responsibility of government to manage their budget. This government is addicted to spending, and when they run out of money they come after more of yours, because, at the end of the day, the government can only spend your money. The government has no money of its own. There is only what it collects from the taxpayer. So, when they stand over there and lecture us on all the things they are delivering for Australians, mark my words, Australia: you are paying every cent of that. When they talk about the discounts they're giving on student debt, let's remember: student debt went up because inflation was out of control. So they've caused a problem and then they've come along and said: 'Have I got the solution for you! You can actually pay to solve our own problem.' That is the problem with this government, people of Australia. They are causing problems and then trying to solve them with your hard-earned money. So, to all the tradies out there, to all the people who didn't go to university: you've actually paid for those student debts to be reduced because inflation was high because government spending is out of control. And I'm with you, Australia. I am sick and tired of this government blaming everybody else for the economic settings in our country. Australians want a government that is going to deliver the houses they are spending billions of dollars not building. They want a government who is going to deliver static conditions for them to be able to rely on the fact that their mortgage isn't going to increase, as it did yesterday, by $100 a month. Here in Australia right now, everyday families and households are paying about $23,000 a year more in interest on their mortgages. Let that sink in for a moment: an extra $23,000 that everyday families are having to find, on top of rising electricity bills,…
date: 2026-02-04T15:12:00+00:00

Administrative Review Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
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description: The opposition does not support this amendment, which introduces mandatory, independent review of the operation of the amendments made by the bill within three years of commencement. The...
encoded: The opposition does not support this amendment, which introduces mandatory, independent review of the operation of the amendments made by the bill within three years of commencement. The opposition is concerned it will add additional administrative burden on an already stretched ART.
date: 2026-02-04T12:08:00+00:00

New Vehicle Efficiency Standard | Adjournment | Senate debates
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description: You deserve to choose what car you buy, yet Labor is limiting your choice when it comes to buying a ute, SUV or four-wheel drive. Australians deserve to know the truth about Labor's ute tax. The...
encoded: You deserve to choose what car you buy, yet Labor is limiting your choice when it comes to buying a ute, SUV or four-wheel drive. Australians deserve to know the truth about Labor's ute tax. The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard Act 2024 introduced fleetwide emissions targets for new passenger and light commercial vehicles. The legislation does not ban petrol or diesel vehicles; however, it relies on penalties and credits that steer car manufacturers towards electric vehicles as the lowest risk compliance option. Manufacturers respond to regulatory pressure. That means a reduction in the range and volume of higher emission vehicles offered in Australia. Everyday Australians rely on utes, four-wheel drives and SUVs, yet in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, when families are choosing between air-conditioning their homes and purchasing groceries and when businesses are going bust, this Labor government is reaching into your driveway and your pocket, trying to dictate how you will spend your money and what car you can drive, regardless of need or vehicle requirements. Funnily enough, the highest selling vehicle in Australia is a ute. Under Labor's vehicle efficiency standards, car manufacturers must meet ever-tightening average CO2 targets for their fleets or face hefty penalties. By 2029, allowable emissions per kilometre will halve, forcing car makers to drastically change their model mix. If a manufacturer exceeds the cap, they will be fined $100 for every gram of CO2 over the limit per vehicle sold. Companies that beat the target earn credits, and they can sell to those who do not by effectively subsidising electric vehicles at the expense of petrol, diesel and even hybrid models. The government insists this is not a tax because the fines are paid by the car makers, not the buyers. But car makers even admit that they will pass this cost on to consumers. The National Farmers' Federation has been blunt and said: There is no point trying to tax us into choosing lowe…
date: 2026-02-03T19:53:00+00:00

Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026 is a case study, I think, for this parliament on how not to legislate. Labor has taken a national tragedy and...
encoded: The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026 is a case study, I think, for this parliament on how not to legislate. Labor has taken a national tragedy and responded not with calm, precision or competence but with a rushed, poorly targeted and deeply flawed piece of legislation. It has been pushed through this parliament with inadequate scrutiny, truncated consultation and a 'take it or leave it' attitude that shows contempt for proper lawmaking. Australians deserve better than policy made on the run. Let me be clear about one fundamental point that this bill deliberately obscures. Australia does not have a gun problem. What we have is a radical Islamist extremism problem, and this government has consistently failed to confront it honestly and directly. Every major terrorist attack on Australian soil in the past two decades has been driven by radical Islamist ideology. That is the uncomfortable truth the government refuses to name. Instead of tackling that ideology, dismantling the networks that promote it and stamping out the antisemitism it fuels, Labor has chosen an easier political target: lawful Australian gun owners. Farmers, sporting shooters, collectors, dealers and licensed competitors are being treated as collateral damage for the government's failure to act decisively against antisemitism and extremism when it mattered. This is unjust, and it's dishonest. This bill uses the horror of the Bondi attack to justify sweeping firearms changes that would have done absolutely nothing to prevent that atrocity. Nothing in this legislation would have stopped the attack. Nothing in it addresses the radicalisation pathways that led to the attack. Nothing in it confronts the ideology that motivated the attack. Instead, it punishes people who already comply with some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Labor wants Australians to believe that confiscating more firearms, tightening imports and expanding bureaucratic control over…
date: 2026-01-20T17:19:00+00:00

Bondi Beach: Attack | Condolences | Senate debates
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description: I rise to offer my deepest condolences to the families, friends and loved ones of the 15 innocent people who were murdered in the horrific antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi last month. No...
encoded: I rise to offer my deepest condolences to the families, friends and loved ones of the 15 innocent people who were murdered in the horrific antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi last month. No Australian should ever be made to feel unsafe for gathering peacefully, for observing a religious holiday or for simply being who they are. I join colleagues across this chamber and Australians across the nation in standing in solidarity with our Jewish community. The attack occurred during Hanukkah, the festival of light. Hanukkah commemorates the survival of a persecuted people and the triumph of faith and religious freedom over tyranny. It reminds us that, even in the darkest times, light can endure and that identity, belief and conscience are worth defending. It is one of the most confronting truths of our national history that the largest loss of Jewish life outside of Israel since the 7 October 2023 attacks occurred here in Australia at one of our most recognisable and beloved public spaces. Bondi Beach, known worldwide as a symbol of openness and community, became the site of the deadliest terror attack on our soil. That is a national wound. Australians have long taken pride in believing such violence does not happen here. That belief has been shattered. We have not only lost 15 innocent lives. We have lost the measure of our sense of safety and of what we thought Australia was immune from. But, when hatred is allowed to fester unchecked for years in our schools, in our universities and in our institutions, we should not be surprised by the consequences. Tolerance of intolerance corrodes the moral foundations of a society. When extremist ideas are excused, normalised or left unchallenged, they do not remain abstract; they metastasise into action. A nation committed to freedom must also be committed to moral clarity. That means confronting hatred early, consistently and without equivocation wherever it appears. We remember those who were taken not as statistics but as peo…
date: 2026-01-19T14:39:00+00:00

Migration | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
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description: Migrant communities like mine understand the promise of Australia because we have lived it. My family, who arrived here from India, Burma and England with little more than determination, built...
encoded: Migrant communities like mine understand the promise of Australia because we have lived it. My family, who arrived here from India, Burma and England with little more than determination, built lives, businesses and futures anchored in stability that this country once took for granted. My own maternal family could come here only because White Australia was abolished by the Holt government and finally dismantled under Whitlam and Fraser. That moment did not weaken Australia; it strengthened it. It opened the door to people who worked hard, played by the rules and made this country better. That stability depends on an immigration system that is orderly, fair, transparent and centred on the national interest. The hard truth is that the current system is failing to meet that standard. It is too large, too chaotic and too vulnerable to exploitation by universities, labour hire operators and those who see migration not as a nation-building project but as a commercial product. When migration becomes a volume business rather than a values based program, pressure falls hardest on the communities who welcomed newcomers first: migrant suburbs where housing is already strained, schools are crowded and job competition is real. People who have journeyed across the world to make Australia home know better than most that citizenship is earned, not purchased. They understand the value of secure borders, clear expectations and a program that prioritises contribution, cohesion and capacity over raw numbers. They know that rapid, unmanaged growth risks social fragmentation, wage suppression and reduced trust between communities who should be standing together. This is the task before this parliament, and migrant communities expect us to get this right.
date: 2025-11-27T13:50:00+00:00

Taxation | Adjournment | Senate debates
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description: Right now Australia's hardworking families are being left behind. Under Labor the cost of living is rising faster than wages. Too many families feel like they're working harder and not getting...
encoded: Right now Australia's hardworking families are being left behind. Under Labor the cost of living is rising faster than wages. Too many families feel like they're working harder and not getting ahead. People who make the difficult but deeply personal decision to work part time to raise their children, support ageing parents or children with a disability or special needs, or just keep the family show on the road are quietly punished by a tax system that doesn't see them. It's time we had a serious conversation about how our tax system treats families. Australia's personal income tax system doesn't just raise revenue; it sends a message about what we value. Right now that message is outdated and unfair to those who structure their lives around caring for children, elderly parents or loved ones with a disability or special or additional needs. Imagine two families earning a combined $160,000 a year. In one, both parents work full time and earn $80,000 each. In the other, one parent earns $120,000 while the other works part time and earns $40,000, perhaps to handle school pick-ups, provide care for a toddler or support a child or elderly parent. Under our current tax system the second family pays more tax. Why? It's because our tax system treats individuals in isolation, rather than recognising the shared reality of household finances and caregiving. This is where household income aggregation, also known as income splitting, comes in. It allows a family to be taxed based on their combined income, with tax brackets applying to the average income per adult. It's a small administrative shift that would make a big difference for fairness and better reflect the way modern families live in Australia today. Australia's system of individual income taxation takes no account of whether someone is supporting a household of one or a family of five. That means the more uneven the income split between partners the more tax the household pays overall. A family where one parent reduces …
date: 2025-11-26T19:34:00+00:00

Environment and Communications References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
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description: I rise to support Senator Henderson's motion referring this matter to the Environment and Communications References Committee. The ABC receives about $1.1 billion in taxpayer funding each year....
encoded: I rise to support Senator Henderson's motion referring this matter to the Environment and Communications References Committee. The ABC receives about $1.1 billion in taxpayer funding each year. This funding will increase by $30 million each year until 2029. With that level of public investment, there comes a responsibility to uphold the highest standards of accuracy and impartiality. Australians expect their public broadcaster to get the facts right, present issues fairly and correct mistakes quickly. Last year, the ABC received about 4,000 editorial and content complaints, with only 56 breaches upheld. The majority of complaints were not even investigated. This level of public concern makes it clear why oversight of the ABC is necessary. Senator Henderson has rightly said the ABC's editorial division has been allowed to run wild and is no longer fit for purpose as a taxpayer funded source of trusted news. I'll go through and highlight some of the examples, but I will take some out because my colleague Senator Henderson has covered some of them. In 2019, the ABC aired serious allegations accusing fellow senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who was then deputy mayor of Alice Springs, of spreading racist vitriol and hate speech. The claims were unverified. In 2021, two years later, the ABC apologised after a defamation action confirmed that the allegations were, in fact, false. The ABC admitted it failed to verify those statements before broadcasting them. They took a now senator through two years of a defamation trial at the taxpayers' expense, only to be found to have never verified the statements that they broadcast. In January 2023, the ABC's report on a community meeting in Alice Springs was found by the ombudsman to breach accuracy and impartiality standards. The ABC relied heavily on just one attendee, who described the event as a 'white supremacist fest', and ignored the broader community perspective. The ABC also understated the crowd size, reporting hundreds wh…
date: 2025-11-25T19:17:00+00:00

Education and Employment Legislation Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
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description: At the request of Senator Kovacic, I present additional comments by opposition senators to the report of the Education and Employment Legislation Committee on the provisions of the Education...
encoded: At the request of Senator Kovacic, I present additional comments by opposition senators to the report of the Education and Employment Legislation Committee on the provisions of the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025.
date: 2025-11-25T18:55:00+00:00

Minister for Climate Change and Energy | Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
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description: What Australians are witnessing is a part-time energy minister who spends more time chasing global applause than getting power bills down for hardworking Australians at home. How can the energy...
encoded: What Australians are witnessing is a part-time energy minister who spends more time chasing global applause than getting power bills down for hardworking Australians at home. How can the energy minister, who now has two jobs, face the Australian people? Australians expect his first duty to be to Australian households and businesses, not to the conference circuit. Under Labor, taxes are climbing, spending is soaring and debt is spiralling out of control. The minister has boasted that he walked away from the failed negotiations for COP31 with, in his words, 'all the power'. We ask ourselves, 'All the power over who and over what?' He will be the President of Negotiations at next year's COP31 climate summit. How will that help hardworking Australians? How will that help them get their energy bills down? Australians are entitled to ask a simple question: how much of their money was spent just so the energy minister could grab all of the power for himself? A figure of $8 million has been thrown around, but I'm sure that, as we find out more in this place, there will be hidden charges and costs that come with that. This theatre is paid for by you, the hardworking taxpayer. Australians do not want another global summit or another slogan. They want the lights to stay on and their bills to come down. They want an energy minister who spends less time on the tarmac and more time fixing our energy grid. They want someone who is focused on affordable, reliable power here in Australia instead of chasing claps in conference halls overseas. It's time to end the climate theatre and to get back to honest, practical energy policy that puts Australian households and jobs ahead of our minister's frequent flyer status. Australians are tired of being lectured on emissions by global elites who will happily bulldoze a rainforest for a more convenient access road to a climate summit. These conferences burn more carbon than they save, yet everyday Australians are turning off their heaters or …
date: 2025-11-25T18:39:00+00:00

Higher Education Support Amendment (End Dirty University Partnerships) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
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description: I rise today to speak against the Higher Education Support Amendment (End Dirty University Partnerships) Bill 2025. After spending two decades working in higher education before coming into this...
encoded: I rise today to speak against the Higher Education Support Amendment (End Dirty University Partnerships) Bill 2025. After spending two decades working in higher education before coming into this place, I know a little bit about how universities operate. I agree with the Greens on one thing—that our higher education system needs significant reform. But this bill is probably one of the silliest I have seen in my very short time being in the Senate. The Greens sound like they have a first-year-undergraduate level view of the world. They are like children who haven't yet fully developed their cognitive capacity. This just goes to show that the Greens, if they were running Australia, would mandate everything that they liked and ban everything that they didn't. They are the party that wants to control exactly what Australians do, how they live, what they're allowed to say and what they're not allowed to say, and I think this bill absolutely speaks to the heart of what the Greens have now become. They are activists rather than looking at sensible policies that are in the best interests of our nation, and I question whether they truly, really like Australia. This bill is characteristic of exactly what the Greens are like. It is an exercise in virtue signalling, completely divorced from reality. I worked in higher education, as I said, for two decades. Research and development that occurs in our higher education system is vital. There is research that goes into sciences, engineering, medicine and all of those different areas which are vital for Australia and vital for our future. We want to have the best thinkers and doers in our nation. Our universities are a great bed for that research and development to occur. Under this bill, the Greens would essentially ban all innovation that would happen, because, as my colleague Senator Kovacic pointed out, everything can be weaponised. What exactly would this bill exclude, if we're going to go through and say that we're not going to…
date: 2025-11-06T09:43:00+00:00

Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Tackling the Gender Super Gap) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: I'm going to start by addressing some of the remarks made by Labor and the Greens which are really quite extraordinary, and there were some that I personally found quite offensive, that a man is...
encoded: I'm going to start by addressing some of the remarks made by Labor and the Greens which are really quite extraordinary, and there were some that I personally found quite offensive, that a man is not a financial plan. Nowhere in this bill, the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Tackling the Gender Super Gap) Bill 2025, does it have any kind of connotation that a man is a financial plan, and unless Labor and the Greens have some kind of magic solution that is going to mean women like me—I've had three children, which have necessitated me having to take time off work to have those children. Unless Labor and the Greens can solve that issue for women, why shouldn't a family—a man and wife, a wife and wife—decide that, for the care of children, they will actually share their super contributions and make that decision on an annual basis? What it tells me about Labor and the Greens is that they don't value the unpaid work that happens in child care and child raising that happens within the family—that they don't value that and they don't respect that. Rather than coming up with actual issues with the structure of this bill, all they are doing is throwing out very crazy, reckless ideas that somehow women are dependent on men asking for this. I can tell you that in my family situation, even though I was the one who had time off work, my super balance is actually higher than my husband's, because he's self-employed. I was very lucky to have a high super. Why couldn't I do it the other way and share with him? Why are Labor and the Greens assuming that this only goes one way when it comes to super? Of course my situation is probably not what most Australians experience, but there would certainly be a lot of people in that situation. What this bill is trying to do—and I congratulate my colleague Jane Hume for introducing this bill to the parliament, because we all know that women aged over 55 are the largest growing group experiencing homelessness in Australia. That is largely…
date: 2025-11-05T10:10:00+00:00

Energy | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: Australians are good stewards of this land. We care deeply about our environment, our farms, our coastlines and our communities. Australians want to do the right thing, yet this government wants...
encoded: Australians are good stewards of this land. We care deeply about our environment, our farms, our coastlines and our communities. Australians want to do the right thing, yet this government wants to carve up our beautiful country to make way for renewables. Ninety-five per cent of Australia's emissions reductions have not come from technology or innovation but from land use restrictions. This is not stewardship. It is saying one thing and doing another. The Australian people deserve better. We're constantly being told that the wind and the sun cost nothing, but—for the grown-ups in the room—nothing is ever for free. The real cost is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars, somewhere between $100,000 and $250,000 for every single Australian. We were promised cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy. Instead, costs are soaring, reliability is failing and Labor's green subsidies are lining the pockets of foreign companies, green energy grifters and international investors while putting everyday Australians out of work. Even leading economists now admit that no large-scale renewable projects are proceeding without government support. When will the minister and this government admit that billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to prop up projects that cannot stand on their own merit. Take the Capacity Investment Scheme, an open-ended subsidy that guarantees profits for renewable developers. It puts taxpayers on the hook whenever market prices fall. The government pays the difference. With no spending cap, all the financial risk shifts from private investors to Australian households, who are already paying—and struggling with—higher power bills. Then there's the new vehicle efficiency standard; I call that 'Labor's war on utes'. We are told it is about cleaner cars and cheaper fuel. In truth, it comes with a hundred-million-dollar set-up bill and annual ongoing costs—money that could have gone to roads, schools and essential services. Instead, everyday Australians a…
date: 2025-11-04T20:00:00+00:00

Energy | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
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description: Australians deserve honesty about energy policy. The reality is that Labor's net zero cannot be achieved without devastating consequences for Australian families, farmers, businesses and...
encoded: Australians deserve honesty about energy policy. The reality is that Labor's net zero cannot be achieved without devastating consequences for Australian families, farmers, businesses and manufacturers and, of course, our natural environment. It's driving up electricity prices, hollowing out our industrial base and undermining our energy security, yet the government continues to treat this fantasy as sacred doctrine. Under Minister Bowen, billions have been funnelled into renewable subsidies and carbon schemes that deliver more political theatre than power. The result is a fragile grid, soaring household bills and a generation of young Australians who are told their country's future depends on shutting down the industries that sustain it: coal, gas and uranium. The resources that built modern Australia are demonised while we import solar panels, wind turbines and batteries from nations like China with poor labour conditions and far weaker environmental standards. This is not environmental stewardship. It's economic self-harm disguised as virtue. Our responsibility is to the national interest—to provide affordable, reliable energy that sustains jobs, strengthens sovereignty and underwrites prosperity. Targets set to appease international forums do not heat homes, power factories or defend our nation. Energy policy must serve Australian families, not the applause of global elites. It's time to remove subsidies paid by hardworking Australian families to green energy grifters and wealthy international investors. We need an unapologetic return to energy realism; investment in dependable power, including next-generation nuclear; maintenance of our coal and gas capacity; and policies that reward Australian production rather than penalise it. A strong domestic energy sector is essential to reindustrialising our regions, rebuilding manufacturing and making Australia once again a country that makes things, grows things and exports strength to the world.
date: 2025-11-04T13:42:00+00:00

Energy | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
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description: I rise to take note of questions asked by the coalition in question time today, and I will take some of the comments from those opposite in terms of where the coalition stands in relation to...
encoded: I rise to take note of questions asked by the coalition in question time today, and I will take some of the comments from those opposite in terms of where the coalition stands in relation to energy policy. Under this Labor government, power bills are up, emissions are up, and productivity has flatlined. We're talking about billions of dollars in rebates with no intrinsic value for the taxpayer. When those opposite stand up and purport that the sun and the wind do not cost anything, I would put to them: why is it going to cost $1.33 trillion just to get solar panels and wind turbines? That number does not include transmission lines. The sun and the wind are going to cost $1.33 trillion. When those opposite put these things to the Australian people—those opposite stood up at the election and said that they would lower power bills by $275. They then came into this chamber and said that they were always expecting power prices to rise. Why did they lie to the Australian people? Why did they mislead the Australian people into believing that they would have cheaper electricity under this Labor government? This government's reckless pursuit of net zero at any cost is costing Australian businesses. It's costing Australian families. It is costing everyday hardworking taxpayers. We've got this government taking over farmland—agricultural, beautiful, pristine parts of Australia—to put in solar panels and wind turbines. This government is proposing to destroy our natural environment—all in the name of having what they call the cheapest form of energy. And I say: if it is the cheapest form of energy, why have our power bills gone up 23.6 per cent? If this is truly the cheapest form of energy for the Australian people, we should be seeing costs coming down. We are not seeing costs fall. We are seeing costs rise, and we are seeing costs rise across the board because when electricity is expensive, it's more expensive to do everything. It's more expensive to produce milk. It's more e…
date: 2025-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

Regional Security | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: What steps is the government taking to reassure Australians, including the families of ADF personnel and the Australian public more broadly, that our maritime surveillance and...
encoded: What steps is the government taking to reassure Australians, including the families of ADF personnel and the Australian public more broadly, that our maritime surveillance and freedom-of-navigation operations will continue safely?
date: 2025-10-30T17:14:00+00:00

Regional Security | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: How does the government balance maintaining trade with its friend China versus regional security concerns?
encoded: How does the government balance maintaining trade with its friend China versus regional security concerns?
date: 2025-10-30T17:14:00+00:00

Regional Security | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Farrell. The government has publicly described the incident on 19 to 20 October in the South China Sea in which a Chinese...
encoded: My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Farrell. The government has publicly described the incident on 19 to 20 October in the South China Sea in which a Chinese Su-35 fighter jet released flares dangerously close to a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft as 'unsafe and unprofessional', yet the PM still labels China as friends. What is the government's view of the incident, does the PM truly believe China is a friend, and how is Australia ensuring its aircraft and crew are safe in the region?
date: 2025-10-30T17:12:00+00:00

Gender and Sexual Orientation | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
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description: Sall Grover, an Australian entrepreneur, created Giggle, a women-only app, to give women a safe space free from online harassment from men. When a biological man sought to join, she said no. For...
encoded: Sall Grover, an Australian entrepreneur, created Giggle, a women-only app, to give women a safe space free from online harassment from men. When a biological man sought to join, she said no. For that, she has spent four years and nearly $2 million in court. Her case is now before the Federal Court, not only for herself, but for every woman and girl who believes women deserve spaces of their own. This is not just about women. It is about any group with legitimate criteria for membership—a prostate cancer support group for men, a children's club for kids or a miscarriage support group for women. Each exists for a reason, and that reason collapses if membership can be claimed by anyone at will. Men cannot have miscarriages, women cannot get prostate cancer, and adults certainly can't be children. Yet our sex discrimination commissioner, Dr Anna Cody, paid $400,000 a year, recently told Senate estimates she did not understand the term 'biological man'. How can the nation's top official for women's rights not grasp basic biology? If she cannot define a woman, how can she defend one? I call on this government to sack Dr Cody immediately. Since 2013, gender identity has overridden sex in the law. The result is the erasure of women's rights, and parliament must act to restore clarity to protect single-sex spaces, services and opportunities as lawful and necessary. This is not intolerance; it is reality and it is fairness. Without sex based rights, we cannot protect women. Gender identity must never override biological sex.
date: 2025-10-30T13:36:00+00:00