Matt Smith's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2026-02-05T22:06:05+00:00
items: Laverty, Mr Declan | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Cost of Living | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: Queensland: Infrastructure | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
items: Energy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: Northern Australia | Ministerial Statements | House debates
items: Mental Health Month | Statements on Significant Matters | House debates
items: Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025, Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Tertiary Education | Questions without Notice | House debates
items: Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women | Motions | House debates
items: Aged Care | Motions | House debates
items: Albanese Government | Statements by Members | House debates
items: g125.5
items: g125.1
items: Regional Australia | Matters of Public Importance | House debates

Laverty, Mr Declan | Constituency Statements | House debates
type: item
description: One of the great privileges of this role is speaking with community and getting in and amongst your constituents. Recently, though, I had a meeting with one of my constituents, Samara Laverty. It...
encoded: One of the great privileges of this role is speaking with community and getting in and amongst your constituents. Recently, though, I had a meeting with one of my constituents, Samara Laverty. It was a meeting that I frankly wish never had to happen, but it is a speech that I now have to make. Some in this place might know the name of her son, Declan Laverty. Declan was a bright 20-year-old who was living in Darwin. He worked at the local BWS, doing his best. On the night of 19 March 2023, while at work, Declan was stabbed. He bled out within a minute, and he was gone. Samara told me in our meeting that the last act that Declan made as he lay bleeding was to text his mother one last time: 'I love you. I've been stabbed.' It was an attack the judge described as 'a random and violent attack on an innocent member of the public', both 'targeted' and 'unprovoked'. I sat with Samara for a bit over an hour. What do you say? How do you show any kind of thought or understanding for the pain that she must go through and the pain that she goes through again every day while explaining what happened? It was incredibly confronting, but it was also really appropriate. More people need to know this story. People should know how much damage can be done in 55 seconds. That's less time than I've been speaking in this chamber right now. Through her loss, Samara has become a dedicated advocate to stop knife crime. Her work helped deliver Declan's law in the Northern Territory, and now she is home in Cairns. Samara wants to speak with young people. She wants them to know what the consequences are of choosing to have a knife on you, what that might look like, what grief and anguish and pain can happen due to a split-second decision and how it can all happen in under a minute. She doesn't want young people to throw away their futures. Under her program, 55 Seconds, she wants to go into schools, meet with sporting clubs and make sure young people know that their actions have consequences. S…
date: 2026-02-04T10:13:00+00:00

Cost of Living | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: We are the regions who provide your food. We have custody over the places that you go on holidays. We provide you with critical minerals. We provide your power. We are practical people. We are...
encoded: We are the regions who provide your food. We have custody over the places that you go on holidays. We provide you with critical minerals. We provide your power. We are practical people. We are the salt of the earth. We are the best parts of Australia. Not a single person in this House would disagree. Do not disrespect us. I grew up in Gippsland. An opposition member: Best member to ever come out of Gippsland! Thank you! I keep telling him! I played in Wollongong. I spent some time in Albury and the Atherton Tablelands. I played in Cairns. But I also spent a bit of time in New York City, where I picked up a phrase: studio gangster. I might be the first person to put the phrase 'studio gangster' into Hansard. I'd like that to be recognised. For those who don't know, a studio gangster is someone who yaps when there's nothing on the line. This is what we are seeing from those opposite: a lot of noise; no influence. Studio gangsters are fun. You like to hang out with them—good times, great times—but when the rubber hits the road they're nowhere to be seen. So let's speak about roads and investment in roads. Take the main artery for Queensland, the Bruce Highway. The last time the Bruce Highway had any investment in it at all, guess who did it? Then infrastructure minister, now Prime Minister, the Hon. Anthony Albanese. Oh, and he's back as Prime Minister, so guess what's getting invested in? The Bruce Highway with $7.2 billion. This will allow freight and families right the way up Queensland to see each other, to spend time with each other. We're making that road safer so that our truckies don't have to worry about it so much anymore. I go to the depots; I have a chat to the lads. They are afraid of the road, but they know the money for it is coming. They know the work is going to commence. They know they will get home at night to see their loved ones. What I'd like to hear from those opposite is more science and fewer feelings. We tend to cherrypick ideas, cherrypick st…
date: 2026-02-04T16:36:00+00:00

Queensland: Infrastructure | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering the infrastructure and transport regional...
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering the infrastructure and transport regional Queensland needs? What approaches has the government rejected?
date: 2026-02-04T14:49:00+00:00

Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
type: item
description: I rise to speak on the condolence motion on behalf of the people of Leichhardt. The Far North feels a long way away from the sands of Bondi, but distance does not lessen compassion nor diminish...
encoded: I rise to speak on the condolence motion on behalf of the people of Leichhardt. The Far North feels a long way away from the sands of Bondi, but distance does not lessen compassion nor diminish grief. So I stand in this chamber today in solidarity and in sorrow with Australia's Jewish community. The heinous events of 14 December—a targeted attack on Australians of Jewish faith, an attack during a time of celebration—were a darkness that threatened to extinguish Hanukkah, the festival of the light. But, with the resilience and the compassion of Australians of every faith, that light shone through. In the days that followed, I worked closely with the Far North Jewish community. At the invite of Rabbi Ari Rubin, I attended a memorial service the next day. It was not just a memorial service but an act of defiance. The feelings of those present were of hurt, confusion, anger and grief. For too many in the room, those feelings were familiar. But, in that room, the small community hall 2,500 kilometres away from Bondi, compassion, love, resilience and defiance shone through. On the second night of Hanukkah, we celebrated together with the lighting of the menorah. In the coming days, Rabbi Ari worked his way down from the Far North to Mackay to be there for his community, to celebrate Hanukkah and to maintain his steadfast refusal to be cowed. It was only later that Ari revealed to me that he had lost close friends in the attack. Yet he held firm to his strength and resolve, which many of us could only begin to imagine. Back in Cairns, Udi David Stern worked hard to create and deliver a community event to welcome and allow the Far North to embrace the community, our community, our friends. So, when we reconvened on the national day of reflection on that eighth day of Hanukkah, there were hundreds of Far Northerners out of every creed, colour and persuasion—a community of Australians united simply by their humanity and compassion for their fellow citizens. Udi did that for u…
date: 2026-01-19T19:29:00+00:00

Energy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: Making jokes—well, yes. You got your social media platform, didn't you? You got to hang out your little signs. Are you going to Masig? Will you speak to the elders? You will not. You can't...
encoded: Making jokes—well, yes. You got your social media platform, didn't you? You got to hang out your little signs. Are you going to Masig? Will you speak to the elders? You will not. You can't even spell these places. You can't locate them on a map. You care little for these people—a people who have been here for generations, for tens of thousands of years, who have protected and taken care of their country, who have fished those waters, who have loved that salt water. The octopus god, Malo, lives there. And you betray them. Every time that you let the Nationals talk down net zero and every time that you take down renewable energy you betray the Torres Strait and everything that they stand for.
date: 2025-11-27T16:41:00+00:00

Energy | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: The world is changing. The delivery of energy is changing. Whether you like it or not, it's changing. It's happening now. Coal-fired plants are done. Twenty-four of the 28 that closed did so...
encoded: The world is changing. The delivery of energy is changing. Whether you like it or not, it's changing. It's happening now. Coal-fired plants are done. Twenty-four of the 28 that closed did so under the watch of those opposite—finished. We understand there have been cost-of-living pressures. It has been a rough six or seven years, particularly for my electorate of Leichhardt. COVID hurt us. The inflation that jumped out the bottle afterwards hurt us more. It was at seven but is now 3.8. We are delivering on cost-of-living relief. We understand what Australians need. We also understand the opportunities that net zero presents to us: manufacturing, mining, the entrance to the world stage as a global power, a superpower for renewable energy and a leader in our region. This is a national security issue. The Pacific has never been more important, and those opposite sell them out every single day. It is disgraceful. The water shall not lap at the doors of our nearest neighbours, but let me tell you of the Torres Strait, Australia's most northern part, a beautiful place filled with beautiful people. Just this week the wakaid, or council of elders, from the island of Badu came down to talk to us about health. Uncle Bongo Sagigi, leader of the council of elders, spoke to me of climate change. When I visit Masig and Saibai, they tell me, 'We do not want to see our cemeteries inundated, the bodies of our children washed away, the bodies of the ancestors gone.' That is what net zero is about. That is the betrayal of Australia, of Australians. They deserve better. They deserve recognition. They do not deserve to have the water lapping at their doors. They do not deserve their cemeteries washed away. They do not deserve to mourn their children washed into the ocean. When you do not accept net zero, when you turn your back on them, you turn your back on Australia. If you betray one Australian, you betray them all. It is disgraceful. It was 2015 the last time any executive from the L…
date: 2025-11-27T16:41:00+00:00

Northern Australia | Ministerial Statements | House debates
type: item
description: I rise today to speak on the statement made by the Minister for Northern Australia. My electorate, Leichhardt, is the perfect embodiment of northern Australia, and, while some will point to...
encoded: I rise today to speak on the statement made by the Minister for Northern Australia. My electorate, Leichhardt, is the perfect embodiment of northern Australia, and, while some will point to Townsville as the capital of the far north, they are wrong; it is in fact Cairns. But Cairns is just the gateway to a much broader and spectacular part of the world. If you'll indulge me, Deputy Speaker Aldred, I would like to go on a little bit of a geography tour of a place I know that you know well, as I ran into you randomly one day at one of the local shopping centres as you were enjoying many of the delights that Cairns has to offer. So we'll start in Cairns. Cairns is a thriving, metropolitan city. It is multicultural. It has many different industries. It is welcoming. It is beautiful. It is home to the reef fleet and the Great Barrier Reef, the gateway to Green Island, Osprey Reef, Lizard Island and Fitzroy Island, where I believe my daughter is right now celebrating schoolies. It is a truly magnificent place. We have over 128 different cultures that are celebrated en masse. Over 10,000 people went to the recent India Day festivals. Diwali was a huge celebration. We are multicultural, we are proud of it and we pull together. We have a shipping industry. Over $250 million is run through our shipping repairs, including working on our naval boats. It is a truly beautiful place. It is also home to the far north's only national sporting team, my beloved Cairns Taipans, who we wish were going better—but we can't have everything. If you spend a few days in Cairns, you might think, 'What else is on offer?' so you'll start driving north. You'll get to the tourism hotspot, the destination, that is Port Douglas, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The golf course there, Palmer Sea Reef golf course, has the crocodile on the first hole lurking in the water trap. You just let the ball go if it's too close to the edge. It is one of the places that people put on their bucket …
date: 2025-11-26T17:04:00+00:00

Mental Health Month | Statements on Significant Matters | House debates
type: item
description: I rise today to speak on the statement made by the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention about Mental Health Month. Unlike the days when people were derided when something...
encoded: I rise today to speak on the statement made by the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention about Mental Health Month. Unlike the days when people were derided when something was wrong with them, I am proud that we are here today in this place speaking about mental health. Not long ago in the chamber, I read a speech from a young leader in our community in Leichhardt, Claudia, about the desperate situation facing many young people in regional areas. The situation is even more desperate in our remote and rural communities, where regular mental health services are essentially non-existent. The Mental Health Month theme this year is 'taking steps on your wellbeing journey'. It is a journey many of us know, and I'm sure we all know someone who has suffered through dark times. Hopefully, we know someone who has pulled through. Sadly, though, some don't make it out of the darkness, and I am not immune. My life from an outside perspective was fairly blessed. I was playing professional sport and had a family. Things were going well. Basketball was taken away from me. Age, talent—whatever it might have been. I was no longer required. Basketball had provided me with an identity, a structure, an understanding of my place in the world, a bubble. From 16 to 30, all I had to think about was that. People looked after my medical needs. They looked after my rent, my houses. People booked holidays for me. I had no life skills. I could not operate in the real world. When that safety net was removed from me, I crashed. I didn't know where to turn for help. The hypermasculine version of professional sport tells you to harden up, tells you to square your shoulders and take the hit, tells you to keep moving forward. No matter how hard I would try to live by that ethos, I drowned. I got further and further down. I required intervention from people that loved me—from my friends, from my former teammates, from my family. They had to find ways to bring me back. It was not a…
date: 2025-11-26T11:34:00+00:00

Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025, Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: Beer is something I'm excited to talk about. I rise today to speak on the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025. Beer has a...
encoded: Beer is something I'm excited to talk about. I rise today to speak on the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025. Beer has a rich history dating back to Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt some 5,000 years BC, where it was actually safer to drink beer than water and it was even used as a form of currency. My own father experimented with brewing and tried to make a Cherry Ripe based beer, which was not flash. You should leave that to the professionals. And, as of now, we are making it easier for the professionals. Having a beer after a week at work is an Australian tradition—heading to the local with your mates, having a chat, unwinding for the week and, particularly in Far North Queensland, bringing your own stubby holder because the schooner is going to get warm before you finish it. As I travel up and down the cape through my immense electorate, I run community offices during the day, but I know that I'm going to get most of the engagement that night at the local pub, pulling beers and chatting to the road crews, the public servants who are done for the day and the FIFO workers. Everybody congregates at the local, be it the Bamaga Tavern on the very edge of the northern Australian tip, the Wongai pub on Horn Island, the Grand on Thursday Island or the Exchange Hotel in Coen. All of them are the heart of Australia. All of them are places where Australians gather to tell stories, have a great time and, yes, have an ice-cold beer. Knowing that beer is frozen and that it is cheaper brings more people to those environments. It helps our social cohesion and keeps that great Australian tradition of the Friday afternoon beer or the Thursday afternoon beer continuing. I am very much looking forward to getting home at the end of this week and going to my local, the Trinity Beach pub, looking out over palm lined beaches to the Coral Sea. It's beautiful. My mates are going to gather around, and we are going to have…
date: 2025-11-25T18:10:00+00:00

Tertiary Education | Questions without Notice | House debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to help Australians with a student debt and to make our education system better and fairer? What has been...
encoded: My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to help Australians with a student debt and to make our education system better and fairer? What has been the response?
date: 2025-11-25T14:32:00+00:00

Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: by leave—I'm very happy to continue my remarks on this motion brought forward by the member for Bowman. Medicare is one of Australia's great success stories, and while we can throw numbers...
encoded: by leave—I'm very happy to continue my remarks on this motion brought forward by the member for Bowman. Medicare is one of Australia's great success stories, and while we can throw numbers about, the simple thing is that facts don't care about your feelings. In Leichhardt there are 24 fully bulk-billed practices helping families and kids. Bulk-billing rates in Queensland alone have gone up by 3.4 per cent. That is up despite what those people opposite would have us believe. Facts and figures don't lie. I'd like to talk about a little town not actually in my electorate. It's called Mission Beach and is about an hour and a half south in the electorate of Kennedy. But I'm sure the member for Kennedy won't mind—we have a passport-style arrangement going on there. Mission Beach is one of the most beautiful places in the country, outside of Leichhardt. It has palm-lined beaches, crystal-clear water and, in 2021, no GP clinic. When last I checked, in 2021, those opposite were in charge. One of the most beautiful places in the country could not hold a GP. That's incredible! But I'm pleased to report that they now have one. The people of Mission Beach—an ageing and retiring population—now have access to a GP on a regular basis. That's because of the Anthony Albanese Labor government. That's because of Medicare. That's because of the investment that Labor always puts into people's health and people's wellbeing. It's who we are. They talk about the credit card. They talk about the numbers. They talk about slogans. But $8.5 billion isn't a slogan; it's a commitment. It is the largest single investment in Medicare since its inception. It is something that we should be proud of as a nation. I have lived under the regime of the US medical system, knowing how much it can cost without that safety net. Now the safety net has grown. One thing we can all agree on is that your postcode shouldn't matter in how you get healthcare. Your income shouldn't matter in how you get healthcare. I …
date: 2025-11-24T18:37:00+00:00

United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women | Motions | House debates
type: item
description: I rise to speak in support of the motion marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I commend the member for Forrest and the member for Bonner for contributing...
encoded: I rise to speak in support of the motion marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I commend the member for Forrest and the member for Bonner for contributing to this motion. It is an area that is sometimes devoid of male voices, and it should not be. First, a statistic—we know that one in four women and one in 14 men have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15. This is a shocking statistic, and, sadly, one that we know to be very true. My own electorate is obviously not immune. We are incredibly overrepresented in domestic violence. It is, unfortunately, something that I've been dragged into. A friend of mine, a work colleague, at the most dangerous time of her life, was preparing to leave her intimate partner, the father of her child. When it was time to go, he killed her and then he killed himself, leaving that child an orphan who has to live with that. It is a stain on our country and our community that that little girl will grow up knowing what her father was capable of and without her mother's love. This happened during the campaign, and it has driven me to reach out to the families commission and to work with the member for Hunter to find a way through and find a way to stop this, because this is a man problem. This is men—primarily men; not always, but mostly men—inflicting damage on the people that we're meant to love, the people that we should protect and the people who should feel the safest around us. And the help's not coming. The manosphere, the internet, toxic masculinity—all these things are contributing to create a world that is less safe for our women and children, and tackling that is the purview of other men. Statistically, one in 11 men will admit to committing an act of physical violence on their partner, which means, if you have a cricket team, one of your teammates—statistically—is a perpetrator. That's a very sobering reality. But it is not hopeless. I visit many women's and domesti…
date: 2025-11-24T18:02:00+00:00

Aged Care | Motions | House debates
type: item
description: I want to thank the member for the opportunity to talk about some of the difficulties facing the aged-care system. I don't think it's any surprise that there are challenges out there. After...
encoded: I want to thank the member for the opportunity to talk about some of the difficulties facing the aged-care system. I don't think it's any surprise that there are challenges out there. After decades of neglect from those opposite, the LNP, we are working hard to rebuild a system that fell apart. I am not the one who came up with the word 'neglect'. The royal commission told us that the system was broken, neglected by the LNP, and Australians agreed. Neglect—let that word hang in the air. The greatest honour that we have is to take care of our old people. When the word 'neglect' is used, thrown around by nothing less than a royal commission, then those who are responsible should hang their heads in shame. It is a disgrace, a national disgrace. Our old people built this country. They provide the culture. They provided opportunity for all of us. Neglect! Do you know how many residential aged-care centres there are north of Cairns? One—the Star of the Sea, on Thursday Island. That's it. It is 2½ days of driving from Cairns to Bamaga. From there you hop on a boat and go to Horn Island, where you hop on another boat to get to Thursday Island. There are a lot of people between Cairns and the Torres Strait who deserve aged care, have deserved aged care and have never received it. In areas where culture breathes and lives, it is important to elders and their community that they live their ageing days on country and that they die on country. Neglect has robbed that from those communities. There is a massive amount of work to be done. It is something that we are tackling—83,000 aged-care packages into people's homes to keep them longer where they grew up. Everybody knows there has been a problem, but only one side seems interested in fixing it. If those opposite had been interested in fixing it, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. I wouldn't be advocating for residential aged care right across the Cape. We wouldn't have to bring the elders down to the Pinangba Ho…
date: 2025-11-24T17:17:00+00:00

Albanese Government | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: This weekend, I will be back in Leichhardt. Let me tell you, the group text has already fired up and we are planning to grab beers on Sunday. I've known this group of men for decades. We all used...
encoded: This weekend, I will be back in Leichhardt. Let me tell you, the group text has already fired up and we are planning to grab beers on Sunday. I've known this group of men for decades. We all used to be basketball players, but now we're construction workers, firemen—I just realised we sound like a super-sized version of the Village People! But that's not the point. The point is I will be home. Thanks to the Albanese Labor government, home is a whole lot better this week. My daughter has just finished year 12. She's not really sure what she wants to do, but fee-free TAFE is available to her and thousands of others around the country who are just finishing their high school journey. My other daughter is recovering from a knee reconstruction. When she initially hurt herself, I was very thankful for the urgent care clinic where she could go grab a quick X-ray and get home. On the subject of Medicare, this week there are now 24 fully bulk-billing clinics right across Leichhardt. But back to Sunday with the beers and the super-sized Village People—the beers will be cheaper because of the freezing of the beer excise. My mate Schooner can shout because his HECS debt has just been reduced by 20 per cent. The bloke pulling the beers is going to get his super at the same time as his pay, his penalty rates are enshrined and he can now save for a house, thanks to five per cent deposits. That's why the Far North is going to be better this week—all thanks to this Anthony Albanese Labor government. I'm really looking forward to getting home.
date: 2025-11-24T13:49:00+00:00

Medicare | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I rise today to speak on Medicare, built by Labor and delivered by Labor. This extra commitment adds $8.5 billion for people to get in to see GPs and get the health care they deserve. When I was...
encoded: I rise today to speak on Medicare, built by Labor and delivered by Labor. This extra commitment adds $8.5 billion for people to get in to see GPs and get the health care they deserve. When I was playing in the United States, I took a hit to the face. My bottom lip was almost torn. The university I played for spent hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing me. A couple of years later, I blew out a shoulder—another quarter-of-a-million-dollar bill for those who were looking after me. In 2019, I had a stroke. Thanks to Medicare, I spent three days in hospital and was able to come out with a clean bill of health and no bill to pay. That is the beauty of Medicare—the equity of health care for all Australians. It is something we on this side of the House are proud of every single day. That little green card opens so many doors and gives people so much quality of life. That's why it's exciting that we've added extra urgent care clinics right across the country, including, very soon, one for the northern suburbs of Cairns. For those unfamiliar with the geography of Cairns, the northern suburbs are cut off when the floods come through almost yearly. We are isolated from any kind of medical help. An urgent care clinic will address that need. The aged, the young and the people who need a top-up of their medication will be able to get in to see a doctor, get checked out and get home where they belong without having to brave the floodwaters that come across our highways. I'm very excited that bulk-billing has been extended. I'm happy for the people of Australia and for my children, knowing they will have continued access to excellent health care.
date: 2025-11-24T11:51:00+00:00

g125.5
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 | House debates
description: The member for Kennedy agrees. Our beautiful natural wonders—all of it is critical. Seventy-seven thousand jobs are connected to the Great Barrier Reef. Over $90 billion it is worth to this...
encoded: The member for Kennedy agrees. Our beautiful natural wonders—all of it is critical. Seventy-seven thousand jobs are connected to the Great Barrier Reef. Over $90 billion it is worth to this nation. That makes it the biggest employer in the country by a not-insignificant margin. It is a great thing to have and a great thing to protect, and that's what these laws are about—making sure we can have one and the other. It is not binary. It never has to be binary, and to argue that it is is a fabrication. These reforms will deliver better protection for everyone. The Business Council of Australia accepts this. I've been meeting with mining companies. I've been meeting with environmental groups. Everyone understands the desperate, desperate need for these laws so that there is understanding and clarity moving forwards. Clarity is fine. Clarity is what anybody wants at all times: 'Give us the superstructure and we can work within it.' But, at the moment, it is higgledy-piggledy. They don't know whether they're coming or going. It makes it hard. Investors lose billions of dollars on projects that go nowhere. This will give our investors surety. Environmentalists are pushing for the protection of areas that don't require it, because they don't understand the nature of it all. The far north is wild—some of it pristine, some of it not so much. Some of it can be mined; some of it cannot. Some of it is prime agricultural land, and it needs to stay that way. We need to give that protection to our people. So this will give us, as led by the review by Professor Graeme Samuel, stronger environmental protection and more efficient and robust project assessment, with greater accountability—'accountability' being the keyword. It always has to come. The buck needs to stop somewhere. I'm sure that people have different views. We're going to hear from many of them. But this bill works for Leichhardt. It works for my area, and it will work for the rest of the nation too. Not everywhere has th…
date: 2025-11-05T18:18:00+00:00

g125.1
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 | House debates
description: My name is Matt Smith, and I'm of the Far North. The member for Kennedy is correct. The story of the north is told by farmers over generations, be it cane, bananas or cattle. It is told by the...
encoded: My name is Matt Smith, and I'm of the Far North. The member for Kennedy is correct. The story of the north is told by farmers over generations, be it cane, bananas or cattle. It is told by the songlines of 60,000 years, celebrating the country, culture, sea and air. It is told by the tourism industry that delights people from all over the world as they visit our two World Heritage areas. We support industry and mining. We have tungsten, zinc, bauxite and silica, the tools required for the energy transition. All of it is in abundance in my beautiful part of the world, which is a place I'm very proud of and a place I know the member for Kennedy is very proud of. He speaks of it passionately. Nobody loves the land like a farmer. Nobody loves the reef like the tourism operators. Nobody loves country like mob. There is no better place to demonstrate why this bill is needed than Leichhardt, because we need to give our industries, including our farmers and our tourism industry, the surety that they need to continue business, continue to bring wealth to the area and continue to drive jobs and economic development in my region, but we also need to protect the natural assets that allow us to do so. Our farmers need to be able to keep farming. Our tourism operators need a healthy and thriving reef. The reef and the Daintree are symbiotic. One cannot exist without the other. They have to be protected. We need to have regulations that work both for environmentalism and the industry. Otherwise, we hang out electorates like mine to dry. I hear multiple arguments that we're going too far or not going far enough, but the balance is critical. Without the balance, I'm losing one or the other, and I can't lose one or the other. You would destroy the far north. We cannot go without our mining. Our mining will drive the energy transition—the silicon in the solar rooftops, the tungsten in the wires and the aluminium that is powering basically everything in this building.
date: 2025-11-05T18:18:00+00:00

Regional Australia | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: I will take that interjection. Could you please return to your seat, Member for Riverina, and we can continue the conversation, or we'll have a chat later. I do agree, though: we all love the...
encoded: I will take that interjection. Could you please return to your seat, Member for Riverina, and we can continue the conversation, or we'll have a chat later. I do agree, though: we all love the regions. We wouldn't be here if we didn't. We work hard in our communities. We've gained their trust, and now we're looking to move forward with that. Yet I hear from those opposite that perhaps they believe that the regions have been neglected, when the simple fact is that the former shadow treasurer had not visited the Far North since 2019 prior to the last election. I've got to say, a fair bit changed in Cairns between 2019 and 2024. A lot changed in terms of the way our economy worked. A lot changed in the way our health system had to work. But we weren't visited. No-one came to listen. No-one cared. I hear a lot about telecommunications, yet 97 per cent of my electorate remains without any form of mobile coverage at all. That is not new. It's always been that way. But, with the low-orbit satellites proposed by this Labor government, we will bring education, safety and better health care to all of Leichhardt. And we'll bring it not just to the urban areas but to the actual regions, the places where people are getting it done. They're growing their bananas and raising their beef in places that I don't think a lot of people over the other side have ever heard of, or cared about—or pronounced! I've got the Minister for Skills and Training here. He shows great interest in the regions. He travels with me to places where most Australians will never set foot. He sits with the elders. He opens new TAFEs, providing opportunity for the people of the Torres Strait to learn valuable healthcare and early-childcare skills which will get them through in their careers and keep them on country, looking after the bubs, looking after the elders and growing the resilience of my communities. We're also adding our child care to remote areas, including Horn Island and Napranum, allowing young mot…
date: 2025-11-05T16:11:00+00:00

Regional Australia | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: I am here now.
encoded: I am here now.
date: 2025-11-05T16:11:00+00:00

Regional Australia | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: I am disappointed that the member for Riverina didn't shout me out, as he shouted out just about everybody else in the chamber!
encoded: I am disappointed that the member for Riverina didn't shout me out, as he shouted out just about everybody else in the chamber!
date: 2025-11-05T16:11:00+00:00