Senate debates
Thursday, 17 September 2026
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Documents (0 speeches)
- Aged Care; Order for the Production of Documents (3 speeches)
The Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job of delivering once-in-a-generation reform for high-quality, world-class aged-care services for older Australians. We're investing $47...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Artificial Intelligence Joint Select Committee; Membership (21 speeches)
Yesterday, I informed the Senate that I had received nominations from Senator David Pocock and Senator Shoebridge seeking appointment to a single crossbench position on the Joint Select Committee...
- Selection of Bills Committee; Report (10 speeches)
I present the 12th report for 2026 of the Selection of Bills Committee. I seek leave to have the report incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The report read as follows— Selection of...
- Business (0 speeches)
- Rearrangement (1 speech)
I move: That general business notice of motion No. 757 be considered during general business today. Question agreed to.
- Notices (0 speeches)
- Postponement (1 speech)
If there is no objection, the business is postponed.
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Statements by Senators (0 speeches)
- Simplot (1 speech)
Yesterday I made some comments regarding the terrible treatment of potato growers in Tasmania from the company that processes their potatoes, Simplot, and the fact that, despite me having...
- Parent Pathways (1 speech)
Flexible, tailored, voluntary support—that is the Albanese Labor government's Parent Pathways program, which, to date, has provided support for nearly 40,000 eligible parents and carers...
- Fossil Fuel Industry (1 speech)
Imagine a humpback whale gracefully gliding through the warm, breathing sea, only to be confronted by an abandoned, decaying gas rig. That is the grave reality in our oceans. There is no legal...
- Taxation (1 speech)
There are two guarantees in life, death and taxes, and the Treasurer has taken this to a whole other level. There are now birth taxes and death taxes, and every time the Treasurer tries to fix...
- Road Transport Industry (2 speeches)
On an extraordinarily happy note, I am very pleased to announce that the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government last week announced the establishment of...
- Aged Care (1 speech)
I add my congratulations to Senator Sterle as well. The FOI revelations reported by Melissa Davey in the Guardian today about the government's IAT, integrated assessment tool, are damning. Time...
- Members of Parliament: Staff, Labor Government (1 speech)
Homophobic, antisemitic, racist and misogynistic—that is how the language used in Rhys Muldoon's now deleted social media posts has been rightly described. We will not let the Labor...
- Cybersafety (1 speech)
The internet is a very different place from the one that I grew up with. When I was a teenager, the biggest social crisis that I faced online was deciding who made it to my Top 8 best friends on...
- Housing (1 speech)
The collapse of Bathla Group, the housing developer, shows why Australia needs a public developer for our housing crisis. Private developer Bathla Group owes over $3.4 billion to around 3,000...
- Homelessness (1 speech)
Somewhere in Western Australia tonight, a child goes to bed hungry. It's not because their parents don't love them or work hard enough but because the system has let them fall through the cracks....
- Electoral System (15 speeches)
Every day, we're hearing new revelations about the extent of the relationship between the Liberal Party and the Exclusive Brethren and their Neo-Nazi associates. As we all know, at the last...
- Ministry (0 speeches)
- Temporary Arrangements (1 speech)
I advise changes to ministerial arrangements for today. Senator Wong will be absent from question time today for personal reasons. In the absence of Senator Wong, I shall be the acting Leader of...
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Private Health Insurance (11 speeches)
My question is to the minister representing the minister for health, Minister McAllister. My home state of Tasmania has the oldest population in Australia, the highest rates of chronic illness...
- Distinguished Visitors (0 speeches)
- Acknowledgement (1 speech)
I draw to the attention of honourable senators to the presence in the chamber of guests from Japan, led by Mrs Hanako Jimi. On behalf of all senators, I wish you a warm welcome to Australia and...
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Gender Equality (10 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Women, Senator Gallagher. The World Economic Forum's Global gender gapreport has ranked Australia eighth in the world for gender equality, our highest ever...
- Indigenous Australians: Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence (20 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator McCarthy. Last month, Australians heard the horrific story of Dorothy Papertalk, an Aboriginal grandmother from Port Hedland who...
- Migration (9 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Minister Watt. The immigration minister today told the National Press Club that the government intends to...
- Early Childhood Education and Care (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Senator Walsh. Families rely on quality early learning centres to balance work and family life and to give their children a great...
- Migration (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Farrell. In light of Minister Burke's policy announcements at the Press Club today about the urgent need to bring...
- Trade with the European Union (13 speeches)
Happy Thursday, everyone. It's good to be here. My question is to the acting leader of the government, my good friend and Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator Farrell. In March, the Prime...
- Migration (11 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Minister Watt. Minister, Australia's current net migration as a percentage of the population sits at around 1.07 per...
- Wages and Salaries (21 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Watt. We know Australians are doing it tough right now, with global volatility and...
- Prime Minister (22 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Farrell. On 27 April 2025, the Prime Minister announced more than $6 million in taxpayer funding for the Marrickville Golf...
- Sovereign Capability (30 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Minister Ayres. The Albanese Labor government has demonstrated time and time again a commitment to a future where we still make things...
- Questions to the President (0 speeches)
- Parliamentary Standards (2 speeches)
by leave—President, I wish to draw your attention to remarks made by Senator Sheldon during two-minute statements and asked at the Hansard be reviewed in the context of standing order...
- Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers (0 speeches)
- Answers to Questions (7 speeches)
I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today. Australians only have to wait another 324 days until the next...
- Private Health Insurance (1 speech)
The phrase, 'the people who built this country'—it's interesting that was used today, yet again trying to rewrite history around migration and the levels of migration that we inherited when...
- Migration (4 speeches)
That word salad was as coherent about private health insurance as anything I've ever heard. It's like a year 7 artistic dance version of private health insurance, that response. It was quite the...
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Documents (0 speeches)
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Community Affairs Legislation Committee, Community Affairs References Committee, Economics Legislation Committee, Economics References Committee, Education and Employment Legislation Committee, Education and Employment References Committee, Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, Environment and Communications References Committee, Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, Finance and Public Administration References Committee, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, Intergenerational Housing Inequity Select Committee, Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, Trade and Investment Growth Joint Committee, Treaties Joint Committee, Women's Health Select Committee; Membership (2 speeches)
The President has received letters requesting changes to the membership of various committees.
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Motions (0 speeches)
- Australian Parliament (1 speech)
I move: That the Senate— (a) notes that Australia's lobbying rules cover only third-party lobbyists, leaving most of those who lobby the Commonwealth outside the system entirely; (b) notes...
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- Dementia (1 speech)
I rise this evening to thank Dementia Australia, particularly the Chair of Dementia Australia, Merran Kelsall AO; the CEO, Professor Tanya Buchanan; and the entire team—Eliza, Dr Stokes,...
- Myanmar (1 speech)
I thank the government for its response to the report of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee into human rights and democracy in Myanmar. At the outset, it's very...
