SUBJECTS: Border protection; future submarines
The Defence Minister today admitted his promise that our new submarines would be 90 per cent built in Australia was untrue. South Australians, and every Australian, should feel ripped off and cheated by this – because they have been.
The Shadow Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, and the Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Industry and Support, Dr Mike Kelly, today welcomed the arrival of Australia’s first two F-35A Joint Strike Fighters to their new home at RAAF Base Williamtown.
SUBJECTS: ALP National Conference; defence industry; the Pacific
Yesterday the Labor movement lost a giant. Before entering Parliament the Hon Gordon Scholes AO was a train driver. He was a staunch unionist and became the President of Geelong Trades Hall Council in 1965. He served as the Member for Corio from 22 July, 1967 to 8 February, 1993.
SUBJECTS: Future Submarine program; National Eneergy Guarantee; national security legislation
In the world today, in the democratic world, at least, we are seeing a rise of populism unlike we’ve seen in my lifetime. By that I mean politicians who come to a room not seeking to win any hearts and minds, just seeking to understand what the room wants to hear and then saying. That’s populism. In effect all the government becomes is a mirror. There’s no aspiration to try and meet the challenges that our society faces; to be thoughtful; to think through issues; to make change. Reforms are not a part of populism. Populism is telling people what they want to hear.
SUBJECTS: Extreme weather events; parliamentary chaos; G20; BAE Systems; Brexit; the big cow and other big things
This is actually the first gathering of parliamentary friends since Karen has become the Minister for Science. When we first started this seven years ago, it was, as Karen said, out of a shared passion for science, and it wasn’t really about politics. It was about trying to make sure that we could do what we could to raise the science literacy of this building…
The reality is simply this: since coup week, the federal Liberals have been unable to speak Victorian. They have absolutely no hope of projecting into our state. By contrast, the Shorten Labor opposition is being policy big. We also seek to be a serious group of people who want to meet the challenges that are facing this country today, unlike the populist rabble that we sit opposite. We will be, if given the opportunity, a government which invests in health, education and infrastructure. We will do that in Victoria and we will do that across the entire country. If there was one lesson that we learnt on Saturday night, it’s that that’s exactly what Victorians want.
SUBJECTS: Victorian election result
SUBJECTS: Final sitting fortnight; energy policy; economy; national security; sitting calendar
Australia and the US are democratic countries which value human rights, freedom of speech and the civilian control of the nations’ armed forces. In both countries the rule of law is paramount: no matter how wealthy, no matter how powerful all citizens are equal before the law. Both countries have worked to establish and defend a global order based on a global rules based system: we have sought to assert the rule of law internationally. And Australia has lived by this.
SUBJECTS: Migration; email breach; Australia’s embassy in Israel
SUBJECTS: Defence acquisitions; Australia’s relationship with Indonesia; My Health Record; Bourke Street terror attack; Australia’s role in the Pacific; 100th episode of Pyne & Marles
Subjects: Australia Indonesia relations; China; the Pacific; APEC; Papua New Guinea
Subjects: Newspoll; Bourke Street attack; Republic
As a young person, politically motivated, living in this country where politics is not really the subject of many discussions around the dinner table, to see Israel and the vibrancy of its political discourse was truly wondrous.
Each year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we pause to remember those who have died or suffered for Australia’s cause in all wars and armed conflicts.
Subjects: Terror incident in Melbourne; the Pacific; Submarine procurement; Luke Foley resignation
Labor joins with the Government in congratulating Australian Defence Force Brigadier Cheryl Pearce as Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Subjects: Pacific Aid and Defence Cooperation; Belt and Road Initiative
Subjects: PM Trip to Queensland; Labor’s Negative Gearing Policy; the Pacific; US Midterm Elections; New US Ambassador to Australia.
A Shorten Labor Government would be committed to the building of an Australian defence industry founded on a proper strategic rationale and with high tech capability. The Future Submarine Program will be crucial in developing this industry and particularly in building technological capability within the Australian defence industrial base.
SUBJECTS: Invictus Games, Australia’s Embassy in Israel, Victorian Election, Foreign Policy Speeches by the Leaders, Cricket Australia Review.
It is critical that we actually develop a strategy which is about where Western Australia fits in the national story, a narrative about the Australian defence perspective which sees WA in its rightful place. It is, in a sense, what Kim Beazley did back in 1987 when he first talked about the importance of having a two-oceans navy. That is an idea about national interest. That was an idea which gave rise to a tectonic shift in our force posture and in the process brought Western Australia, Henderson, Fleet Base West, into the centre of our nation’s affairs.
SUBJECTS: Labor’s plan for the Pacific; South China Sea
I also rise to join in the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and, in so doing, I say sorry to those victims, particularly those victims who suffered at institutions in my home town of Geelong, which housed more orphanages than any other place outside of a capital city, which, in turn, means that there is a significant proportion of the population of Geelong today who grew up in institutions of this kind.
SUBJECTS: Wentworth by-election; asylum seekers
SUBJECTS: Afghanistan; South China Sea; trade; North Korea; defence procurement
In less than 12 months Christopher Pyne has delivered three rounds of job losses at ASC, with 372 shipbuilders losing their jobs at Osborne. Christopher Pyne has let down the workers at Osborne, South Australia, and the Australian shipbuilding industry. He has shown exactly what his promises are worth.
There is no doubt the aspiration to a world free of nuclear weapons is a good one. For Australia, it’s the right thing to aim for, but it’s also in our national interest. The world is safer, and our region more stable, in a world where the number of nuclear weapons is falling.
A Shorten Labor Government’s two year National Preschool and Kindy Program will see a $386 million investment for children in Victoria over the forward estimates.
Last week Labor announced our plans to extend preschool access to three year olds and commit to ongoing funding for four year old preschool.
This is the biggest ever investment in early education for children. Under our plan, over the forward estimates in Victoria alone, from the year 2021 – 128,000 three year olds will be able to access 15 hours of subsidised care.
Unlike the Liberals, there is no further funding from the Morrison Government to fund four year old preschool beyond next year. Annually this leaves around 2,808 preschoolers in Corangamite and 2,506 preschoolers in Corio in the dark.
SUBJECTS: Telecommunications infrastructure security; China in the Pacific; social credit; reset in the Australia-China relationship; quotas
SUBJECTS: Military cooperation with PNG and the Pacific; foreign ownership of gas pipelines; medical care for children on Nauru; gender equality; school funding
A Shorten Labor Government will partner with the Victorian Government and Geelong City Council to build the infrastructure and economic opportunities the region needs for the future – investing $153 million in a Geelong City Partnership.
SUBJECTS: Liberals education cuts; strawberries; Labor’s support for women’s superannuation; aged care
SUBJECTS: AFL finals, Scott Morrison’s disastrous first sitting week; Peter Dutton’s ineligibility to be an MP; wage stagnation; Australia-US relationship; Mid Winter Ball
Today we honour and remember our peacekeepers and peacemakers for the 71 years of continued service of peacekeeping. Australia has a long and proud history when it comes to our peacekeeping efforts around the world.
SUBJECTS: Peter Dutton; climate change in the Pacific; TPP
SUBJECTS: Land Forces; change in prime minister; energy policy; national accounts; Indonesia; Pacific Islands Forum; underdogs
A Federal Shorten Labor Government would look to increase the presence of the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) at the Port of Townsville, creating new jobs and further diversifying North Queensland’s economy.
A Shorten Labor Government will put in place a formal agreement to ensure the nation’s armed forces are fully supported during and after their service, and will legislate regular reporting to Parliament on how Australia is supporting military personnel.
SUBJECTS: Pacific Islands Forum
SUBJECTS: Liberal in-fighting; ministerial re-shuffle; China; the Pacific; Afghanistan
SUBJECT/S: Wentworth by-election, renewable energy, immigration, defence, NEG, defence industry.
After months of insisting that there is job security at the Osborne shipyards Christopher Pyne has let down South Australia once again as 93 more jobs are set to go from ASC. The Government’s actions on naval shipbuilding continue to belie its words.
Space Activities Amendment (Launches and Returns) Bill 2018
Australia’s relationship with space stretches back more than 60 years. It goes back to the very earliest days of the space age. The International Geophysical Year, 1957, was the year in which Sputnik was launched and when the UK Atomic Weapons Research Establishment had activities in Australia, with high altitude launches of sounding rockets. It was the very beginning of Australia’s participation in the space industry.
SUBJECT: Fraser Anning
SUBJECTS: Portraits of the Queen
SUBJECTS: Portraits of the Queen; NEG
The communicative power of footy in Melbourne makes the game in that city as significant as the advent of the printing press. But of all the footy topics the one that yields the richest discussion is tipping. Everyone does it. The weekly consideration of factors like form, home ground advantage and injuries when weighing up one’s tips makes the most ignorant amongst us feel like budding sportscasters.
A Shorten Labor Government will work with local councils and the State Government to deliver a City Partnership for the Geelong region, the benefits of which would be felt across Corio and Corangamite. This will build on the details of any City Deal which has been proposed by the current Federal Government for Geelong. Geelong is a critical city, offering residents a stunning natural environment, a beautiful heritage centre, local employment opportunities and a strong sense of community.
SUBJECTS: Defence industry; Donald Trump; population; by-elections; retired politicians
SUBJECTS: Newspoll; by-elections; Israel; defence spending; South China Sea
Labor supports the Government’s announcement that Australia has agreed to supply a specific contribution to the NATO-led RESOLUTE SUPPORT MISSION, in the form of a small team of Blackhawk helicopter qualified instructors, maintainers, and operational planning advisers. The team will support the Afghan National Air Force to establish its UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter capability.
SUBJECTS: Paris Climate Accord; Labor’s plan for a fairer tax system; 100th anniversary of the Battle of Hamel; Labor Party.
Labor has welcomed the announcement that BAE Systems have been awarded the $35 billion Future Frigates contract, particularly the company’s commitment to train and employ more than 1000 local apprentices and graduates.
SUBJECTS: Future Frigates, Company Tax Cuts, Senate Stalemate, July 1st 2018 Penalty rate cuts, Drones, Australian Defence Force, Defence Industry, Shipbuilding program.
Labor welcomes the announcement of BAE as the successful tender for the Future Frigates program.
Australia needs a National Shipbuilding Plan for civil as well as defence vessels, with a sovereign Australian industry, built by Australian workers according to the final report of the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into Australia’s naval shipbuilding industry, tabled today.
Labor proudly recalls the establishment of the Commonwealth Organ and Tissue Authority, which occurred under the Rudd government. Since its institution, the authority has seen a 40 per cent increase in the number of people who have put themselves down for organ donation. But it is the case that, at any point in time in our country today, there are 1,600 people in need of an organ donation. The single most important factor in meeting that need is people having the conversation about what happens if their loved ones are in a circumstance where they meet their passing but there is an opportunity, through organ donation, to save the lives of others. In addition to campaigning for opt-out organ donation, it is really important that we encourage Australians to participate in the Australian Organ Donor Register and to have that conversation. People can do that by going to www.donatelife.gov.au/decide, and there they can register on the Australian Organ Donor Register. But tonight I would really like to acknowledge Louie Hehir, his bravery and his commitment to raising this issue.
[As published in the Herald Sun, Tuesday 26 June, 2018]
My father died a year ago. My mentor was gone. Since childhood, Dad had been the repository of my achievement, the person I could tell what I’d done, knowing it would be received with a purity of good will.
The Liberal Government need to break with their traditional habit and get their upcoming frigate procurement right in the national interest. The Liberals used the submarine procurement decision as a leadership bargaining chip; pitted states and marginal seats against each other for the Armoured Fighting Vehicles; sent the supply ships to be built overseas; and failed a last-minute attempt to jam two competitors together in the Offshore Patrol Vessel project.
SUBJECTS: Tesltra job cuts; China; United States; North Korea; Labor’s fairer tax plan
SUBJECT: A fairer tax system
Labor once again calls on the Turnbull Government to implement a national, coordinated, consistent response to PFAS contamination in light of the weekend’s reports. Right now, communities are uncertain about their futures, confused by mixed messages from multiple sources and deeply distressed. And the Turnbull Government just continues to drag its feet.
SUBJECTS: France; space; Labor’s plan for a fairer tax cut; Huawei; Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; Singapore summit; weekend of sport
SUBJECTS: Singapore summit; Huawei; SAS
Space has been knocking on Australia’s door for more than 60 years, going right back to 1957 of the International Geophysical Year, the year in which Sputnik was launched but the year also in which the joint Australian UK Weapons Research Establishment started doing tests with sounding rockets in high-altitude launchers. From that moment on our friends, our allies, have viewed Australia as a place ideal to look to the heavens. From NASA to ELDO, from Honeysuckle Creek to Woomera,they have been beating a door to our nation, and almost beyond our choosing Australia’s relationship with space has seemed a part of our national destiny – and for good reason.
SUBJECT: Singapore summit
SUBJECT: Singapore summit
These are obviously deeply concerning reports. We will be seeking a briefing from the Minister’s office about the Crompvoets report. We will also be seeking, subject to national security considerations, as much of this report as possible be brought to the public domain. Information in a report as significant as this should not be coming to light via leaks to newspapers.
SUBJECTS: China
The Turnbull Government’s disgraceful response to PFAS contamination issues will finally be investigated, with today’s establishment of a Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry. It is almost two years since Labor released its policy to address PFAS contamination. In the absence of their own policy, the Turnbull Government adopted Labor’s plan but have failed to implement a national, coordinated approach.
Senate Estimates today revealed the Government lied about how much Liberals are paying a failed colleague in a mates-rates job. On 9 April, the Government announced David Johnston, a man most famous for talking down Australia’s defence industry, as the first Australian Defence Export Advocate.
SUBJECTS: North Korea; by-elections; tax plans; border protection; MPs’ security
Labor welcomes the United Nations Secretary-General’s disarmament agenda, launched this morning in Geneva. Mr Guterres’ agenda, “Securing our common future”, proposes many concrete and practical actions to reinvigorate dialogue and negotiations on international disarmament.
SUBJECTS: Sexual abuse in the ADF; Andrew Hastie; offshore detention
SUBJECTS: By-elections; foreign interference; South China Sea
Reports in today’s newspapers of sexual misconduct by members of the ADF are deeply concerning. Sexual assault or abuse in any workforce should not be tolerated. The overwhelming majority of men and women in the ADF serve our country with the pride and respect which is expected from our Defence Force and we can be proud of the work they do and the professionalism they show. However, today’s reports show some ADF members have failed to meet the standards of behaviour their colleagues and the community rightly expect.
Today in Senate Estimates, the Liberals admitted that they chose not to save 223 shipbuilding jobs at ASC, despite having the means to do so. In December last year ASC was awarded nearly $30 million over three years for training scholarships, but this money has not been drawn down. No workers have been offered retraining or redeployment.
SUBJECTS: Andrew Hastie; foreign interference; defamation law; China; offshore detention
SUBJECTS: North Korea; China; foreign interference; company tax cuts
SUBJECTS: Geelong; Budget; by-elections; live sheep exports; Malaysia; North Korea; royal wedding.
Today’s announcement by Naval Group Australia that they will appoint their third CEO in 18 months leaves the Government with questions to answer about how they are managing the biggest procurement in Australia’s history.
The Liberals’ obsession with prioritising announcements over our national Defence capability needs has been panned in the ANAO’s report into the naval construction program today.
SUBJECTS: Margaret River incident; foreign affairs; budget; citizenship; budget day
Today’s announcement that Austal has been cut from the $3 billion Offshore Patrol Vessel program shows just how badly the Government has managed this project.
Australia does not place the importance upon the Pacific that it deserves. Our lack of leadership in the Pacific is one of the biggest gaps in Australia’s national security policy. We have the largest diplomatic footprint of any nation in the Pacific and we provide the largest amount of development assistance.
The Minister needs to stand up and explain to the Australian people how he is making sure the biggest procurement in Australian history is being properly managed.
SUBJECTS: North Korea; Iran; French President’s visit to Australia; Australia and China in the Pacific
SUBJECTS: North Korea; Australian Signals Directorate; defence industry; border protection; Medicare levy; US Ambassador
SUBJECTS: North Korea; NDIS; PM’s Germany trip; US Ambassador appointment; ANZAC Day; Sir John Monash; Concord Repatriation Hospital; Celebrity Phone Numbers
SUBJECTS: ANZAC Day; US Ambassador
Today marks 103 years since our ANZACs first landed on the beaches at Gallipoli in the First World War. This Anzac Day, in the final year of the Centenary of Anzac, we also acknowledge the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, a crucial turning point in WW1 which brought the German offensive on the Somme to an end.
The decision to have a national defence industry is not lightly made. If you want to have a national defence industry then as a nation, at every level, we have to commit to it.
SUBJECTS: Defence industry; future Press Club address; foreign ownership; Myanmar; Labor Party; cyber security; China; uniforms worn by political candidates
SUBJECTS: Defence industry; ASC jobs cuts; China; NSW Labor; live exports
The Liberals promised last year that the valley of death was over and that the upturn in shipbuilding employment would continue. Fast-forward a few months and the reality is starkly different. Jobs are still disappearing and ASC staff numbers continue to fall, having almost halved over the last three years.
SUBJECTS: Defence expos; Syria; Defence appointments; energy; banking royal commission; cyber security; busiest day of the year
SUBJECTS: China; Pacific nations
This Government has presided over the loss of more than 2000 Australian shipbuilding jobs and failed to invest in Australian skills and jobs for major procurement decisions.
SUBJECT/S: New Chief of the Defence Force; Syria
Chemical weapons are forbidden by the UN and those responsible for this barbaric and criminal act have to be held to account for their flagrant breach of longstanding international law.
SUBJECTS: China; Geelong Cats
SUBJECTS: China in the Pacific
SUBJECTS: China in the Pacific; Syria; Fake Black Lives Matter Facebook page
SUBJECTS: China in the Pacific; Syria
SUBJECTS: China in Vanuatu
SUBJECTS: China; Syria; Newspoll
If the Government was serious about supporting Australia’s defence industry, their first Australian Defence Export Advocate would have been a serious person with a record of backing the industry. Instead, they’ve picked a man who said he wouldn’t trust Australia’s submarine builder “to build a canoe” – while he was the minister responsible.
The Turnbull Government’s record on skills and training is abysmal. They’ve lost more than 140,000 Australian apprenticeships so far.
SUBJECTS: Mosul, Russia; Section 44
SUBJECTS: Russia; cricket
SUBJECTS: Land 400; Labor’s plan for a fairer taxation system; Stephen Hawking; elections; ASEAN; sledging
Labor warmly welcomes ASEAN leaders to Sydney for this week’s ASEAN-Australia Special Summit. Australia became ASEAN’s first formal dialogue partner under Prime Minister Whitlam in 1974, and Labor appointed the first Australian Ambassador to ASEAN in 2008. The Australian Mission to ASEAN was established in September 2013, and a formal strategic partnership was agreed in 2014. This Special Summit builds on Australia’s strong history of engagement with ASEAN under governments of both persuasions, and a significant initiative for which the government is to be commended. Australia should and does reach out to the region, and this step in our relationship with ASEAN is the result of just that outreach. It is an initiative which, in government, Labor will certainly seek to develop further.
SUBJECTS: Rex Tillerson; Land 400; Labor’s reform to dividend imputation
SUBJECTS: Labor’s dividend imputation reform; Batman byelection; Adani coal mine; Land 400; Russia
SUBJECTS: North Korea; US foreign policy; Labor’s anti-dumping plan; Labor’s plan to restore education funding
SUBJECTS: North Korea; Adani coal mine; national accounts; International Women’s Day; tariffs and trade; the Greens
SUBJECTS: Drug Testing Welfare Recipients; Energy Policy; Quantum Computing; Women in STEM; Foreign Outfits
SUBJECTS: Adani; NEG; China
Back in 2011 the review of funding for schools was really a breakthrough in policy in this place around ensuring that all children would get proper education irrespective of where they lived and irrespective of what sort of school they attended. The funding of schools has been as big an issue in public policy that’s been considered in the halls of this building and, indeed, the former parliament house as perhaps any since Federation. We felt that it was a breakthrough back then in part because it attracted the support of the then coalition opposition such that, going into the 2013 election, the coalition promised to ‘match Labor’s school funding dollar for dollar.’ Since being elected in 2013, that pledge has been broken day in and day out, and we now have a situation where billions of dollars less is being provided to schools around Australia than what was originally committed…
SUBJECTS: Barnaby Joyce; Prime Minister’s visit to the United States; state elections; elder abuse; Winter Olympics; political ads
SUBJECTS: Crisis in the Government; PM’s Washington D.C visit; US Defence Strategy
We are in uncharted territory. Never before has a sitting prime minister and deputy prime minister showed such open contempt for each other. Malcolm Turnbull thinks that Barnaby Joyce has shocking judgement. Barnaby thinks Malcolm is inept. It’s amazing. What on earth happens now? No amount of going overseas or taking leave or going into hiding is going to resolve this issue. So long as number one and number two are fighting each other, we are not being governed. Labor knows that. I can tell you that all the other government MPs know it, the Parliament knows it, and the country knows it.
SUBJECTS: Government Leadership Crisis; Jobs Figures; Closing the Gap; 10th Anniversary of Apology to Stolen Generation; American Gun Laws
This week the parliament has commemorated the 10th anniversary of the apology to the Stolen Generation. It truly was a remarkable event in the life of this parliament and in the life of this nation. In a larger sense, the apology was a grand act of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Much more needs to be done in closing the gap, but the significance of the apology in the history of Indigenous relations cannot be overstated. This anniversary has been a reminder to me of a much earlier story of goodwill between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia which occurred in the first years of European settlement. It’s a story I have spoken about previously in this place.
Malcolm Turnbull does not have authority and that’s why this thing is limping from disaster to disaster and why we are all being inflicted with just the most appauling drama being played out on TV
So Christopher I don’t know about you, I am very much sick of this issue and I think the whole country wants us to move on from it. I mean our solution to this has been to have a joint referral in respect of anyone who has an issue.
“I think we have learnt about the meaning of identity, the meaning of a childhood lost, what family is about. Ultimately, actually, the meaning of love. And the devastation that stays a lifetime by virtue of the experiences that fortune dealt you”
Nice to be here Peta and Happy New Year. Look when you’re talking about polls I am in the camp of people who you know, obviously I do look at the polls, the idea that politicians don’t look at polls isn’t exactly right.
When a day which has been so clearly imagined, so anxiously hoped for, so purposefully worked toward finally arrives, it really is a great day.
Labor has long supported an Australian defence industry and we’ve long been strong supporters of an Australian defence industry that has, at its heart, the capacity to export.
SUBJECTS: Defence export strategy; Defence spending; US defence strategy; referendum on the republic; citizenship
The Turnbull Government’s defence export strategy released today can only be described as window dressing by a Government that has presided over the loss of more than 2000 Australian shipbuilding jobs and failed to invest in Australian skills and jobs through major procurement decisions.
SUBJECTS: TPP; Annual Curtin Lecture
Our sense of national mission could be so much stronger – Annual John Curtin Reseach Centre Lecture
The Federal Labor Defence team would like to wish all of our ADF personnel a happy and safe holiday season. As many of our military families take time over the festive season to be together, we also remember the 2,350 men and women on deployment across the globe who cannot be with their loved ones this year.
Labor welcomes the Government’s announcement that progress in the fight against Daesh means our six F/A-18F Super Hornets, their crews, and support can come home.
SUBJECTS: Bennelong; citizenship; China
SUBJECT/S: Sam Dastyari; Reckless Chinaphobia
SUBJECT/S: Equal marriage; citizenship; Jerusalem; Christmas
The Turnbull Government’s debacle of a response to PFAS contamination across 23 Defence sites will be under the spotlight after Labor yesterday ordered an inquiry through the Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. For 18 months, Labor has repeatedly called on the Turnbull Government to adopt a nationally consistent approach to PFAS management around these bases – but our calls have been ignored time and time again.
SUBJECT/S: Leaks; banking royal commission; parliament; Sam Dastyari; Australian republican movement
SUBJECT/S: Sam Dastyari; banking royal commission
SUBJECT/S: North Korean missile test; foreign donations
Labor condemns North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test in the strongest terms. This test, which has the hallmarks of an intercontinental ballistic missile, is yet another provocative and dangerous act taken by the North Korean regime, in continuing and complete defiance of international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
OFF the club it was clear my son, Harvey, had made the purest contact. The ball carried the front hazard, landed safely on the green, and began to close the gap with the hole.
This shot had a chance. My heart was in my mouth. And then I saw it: the unmistakeable sudden disappearance of white which could only mean the ball had dropped.
SUBJECT/S: Parliamentary anniversary; OPV announcement; parliamentary panic; imaginary tax cuts; foreign affairs white paper; assisted dying legislation
The Minister needs to explain how the arrangement announced today – three potential builders spread over two build locations – will lead to an Australian naval shipbuilding industry that has an export capability. Local design capacity is at the heart of a sustainable export industry. An Australian design house competed to be part of the design team working on this program – a design house that designed ships currently being built for the US Navy. The Government needs to explain what role Australian designers will play in the development of the OPVs. And if there is no role for Australian designers in the development of these ships, the Government needs to have a very good explanation.
SUBJECT/S: Foreign Affairs White Paper
SUBJECT: Australian engagement in the Pacific
SUBJECT/S: Australia’s relationship with the Pacific
“…74 years ago to this day the Battle of Tarawa saw the single biggest beach landing of World War II up to that point. The lessons learned there would be applied at Normandy within a year. Over four horrific days of conflict almost 6,400 people would die in a struggle to take Betio, which was being used by the Japanese as an air base. Four Congressional Medals of Honor would be won there: three of them posthumously. And a documentary “With the Marines at Tarawa”, on the way to winning an Academy Award, would shock homeland America for the first time about the true horrors of the War. Today on Betio there are still reminders of the Battle: rusted landing craft in the lagoon, a wreck of a tank in the village, and the dilapidated concrete bunkers which now provide the saddest of homes. To see Betio is politicising. It asks many questions. And in the process it demands one simple answer in clear and indefatigable terms. Betio was worth fighting for then. And in a very different way Australia needs to fight for Betio, and indeed all of the Pacific, now.”
SUBJECT/S: Cyber security; same sex marriage postal survey; Government’s citizenship crisis; Robert Mugabe; public announcements
The size of our coastline, our distance from the rest of the world, the importance of our sea lanes: these are facts that don’t change with changes in the parliament, or even changes of government. These are the unchanging facts that drive our approach to submarines, and their unchanging nature is what gives such continuity to the submarine program across changes of government. It’s why, ultimately, Australia has landed in a place where there is bipartisan agreement on the need for 12 long-range submarines.
SUBJECT/S: Marriage equality postal survey; Bennelong by-election
SUBJECT/S: Citizenship crisis; TPP; quadrilateral; President Trump’s visit to Asia; Manus Island
SUBJECT/S: Citizenship crisis; Australian defence industry; regional summits; defence relationship with Britain
SUBJECT/S: Bullecourt; citizenship; quadrilateral security dialogue
…Living in a world where information is largely global it’s easy to feel like world-views are globally knowable, too – but that is not true. Because the world looks different depending on where you stand, and it’s only really when you stand in other places that you can appreciate the aspect. It’s no great insight to say the UK looms fairly large in many Australians view of the world. There’s a lot of legacy, after all. There’s a lot of currency, too: in our most recent figures to date (2016), the second-greatest stock of foreign investment in Australia is from the UK…
As a cricket loving Australian addressing the Royal United Services Institute in London just weeks before the beginning of an Ashes tour, it is impossible not to start with a plea to all of you: enjoy the feeling of holding the sacred urn while it lasts, because its tenure here in England only has a few short months to run. While the trophy itself maybe physically tied to Lords, its spirit has always belonged down under: from the first win of Dave Gregory’s Australian XI in 1877 to Billy Murdoch’s astonishing victory in 1882 which gave rise to its birth as a result of the efforts of that demon bowler Spofforth.
SUBJECTS: Citizenship crisis and the constitution, same sex marriage postal survey, Korean Peninsula, submarines
SUBJECT/S: Energy, High Court dual citizenship decision, the Bachelorette, AFP raid, Senator Cash staffer.
Labor supports the Government’s agreement with the Philippines to expand our assistance helping build the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ long-term capability to tackle terrorism. Stability and security in our region is in our national interest, just as it’s in our national interest to make sure Islamic State-inspired groups do not gain a foothold in our region.
SUBJECT/S: End of car manufacturing in Australia; Liberals’ energy ‘policy’; New Zealand election; ISIS; 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; Speeches
SUBJECT/S: ISIS; Liberals’ ‘energy’ policy
SUBJECT/S: North Korea, Trump, Pacific Command, Admiral Harris.
Thank you for the invitation to participate in today’s Roundtable discussion on the Australia-United States Alliance and its role in responding to Asia Pacific threats and challenges. I think it’s worth giving you a sense of my visit to the US so far. I arrived in Dallas on Friday and saw the Lockheed Martin facility which is assembling the F35s, and from there went to Mobile, Alabama and saw the Austal shipbuilding facility which is building Littoral Combat Ship for the US Navy.
SUBJECT/S: Las Vegas, Pacific 2017, Energy, COAG, Defence.
SUBJECT: Contamination at Williamtown
SUBJECTS: Terrorism laws; submarine capability gap; North Korea; gas
SUBJECTS: North Korea; engagement with Asia; US relationship; same sex marriage survey
SUBJECTS: North Korea; Australian space agency; Liberals’ energy crisis; same sex marriage survey
SUBJECTS: Mexico earthquake; after hours doctors; Australian naval exercises
SUBJECTS: President Trump at the UN; North Korea; Australian navy exercises
SUBJECTS: Energy prices; media reform; marriage; Israel and Palestine
SUBJECTS: Cats and Crows; energy; national accounts; North Korea; counter-terrorism in the region; diplomacy
SUBJECTS: North Korea; parliamentary entitlements
Labor condemns North Korea’s nuclear test in the strongest terms. This test is not only a direct threat to North Korea’s neighbours, it undermines global peace and security.
TOPICS: North Korea; Citizenship
SUBJECTS: Military assistance to the Philippines; North Korea; Citizenship
SUBJECTS: Electoral Redistributions; Energy Policy; North Korea; Natural Disaster Resilience
SUBJECTS: Citizenship; North Korea; Harry Harris; inequality
SUBJECTS: North Korea
Today marks 75 years since the beginning of the Battle of Milne Bay. The Battle took place on the south-eastern tip of Papua, in harsh conditions, notably extreme humidity, voracious insects and topical diseases. Overcoming these conditions as well as the enemy was a hallmark of the efforts of Australian forces faced during World War II in our region.
SUBJECTS: Barcelona terror attack; Khaled Sharrouf
The Liberals stood by while the car industry left South Australia. Today we learn they’re going to exclude Australian workers from the billions of dollars of work on our new frigates. The Government needs to come out today and say how they’re going to secure jobs for South Australians in this project.
SUBJECTS: Julie Bishop and Australia’s relationship with New Zealand
SUBJECTS: Julie Bishop comments on NZ Labour; ANZUS; North Korea
SUBJECTS: High Court; $122 million marriage survey; union legislation; energy prices; North Korea; parliamentary behaviour
SUBJECTS: Marriage equality
The thoughts of the Labor Party are with the families, friends and comrades of the US Marine Corps personnel involved in the incident involving an MV-22 Osprey off the coast of Queensland yesterday.
SUBJECTS: Osprey crash; Australia-US relationship; North Korea
SUBJECTS: Terrorism raids, marriage equality, trusts, US Alliance
Labor welcomes the appointment of Mr Greg Moriarty as the next Secretary of the Department of Defence.
SUBJECTS: Anthony Scaramucci; dual citizenship; inequality; AUKMIN; Australia’s commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq
SUBJECTS: Dual citizenship; home affairs, Talisman Sabre; South China Sea
SUBJECTS: Ninja Warrior; home affairs; asylum seekers
SUBJECTS: Asylum seekers; Talisman Sabre; home affairs portfolio; Greens candidate pre-selection; economy
SUBJECTS: Asylum seeker policy
SUBJECTS: National security; Resignation of Greens’ senators
SUBJECTS: National security; Resignation of Greens’ senators
SUBJECTS: ADF’s role combatting terrorism; homeland security
SUBJECTS: ADF’s role combatting terrorism; homeland security
SUBJECTS: Homeland security; ADF’s role combatting terrorism
SUBJECTS: Talisman Sabre; US refugee processing; cyber security; defence industry exports; Australia’s role in the region; Islamic State
Turnbull Government ministers are proud to say their government has the first defence industry minister in Australia’s history. They never say why that’s something of which to be proud. Mostly, that’s because there’s been very little thinking to establish the policy rationale behind it. Political thinking, yes, but not policy thinking.
SUBJECTS: Defence, G20
SUBJECTS: China; foreign donations; Government split on climate policy
In the last two decades global terrorism has changed the world in which we live. And much of the posture and efforts of our defence forces today are a response to that. This horrendous event puts this all into stark relief. “Armed service is a profession unlike any other.”
It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the death of an Australian Army soldier in the Mount Bundey Training Area earlier today. On behalf of the Labor Opposition, we extend our deepest sympathies to the soldier’s family and friends. There can be no sadder or more difficult day.
TOPICS: Buckingham Palace; Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to education; Badgery’s Creek; US alliance; Budget
TOPICS: 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea; US alliance; Malcolm Turnbull’s education cuts
TOPICS: AOC; Australian gas market; Budget; visit US Vice President Pence; Anzac Day; Soldier On
TOPICS: Anzac Day; Defence deployments; Canberra-class amphibious landing ships; Joint Strike Fighter
Australia need amphibious ships that work. They keep our troops safe when they’re in harm’s way. They help Australians during time of need, like recovering from Cyclone Debbie. Today’s reports tell us those ships are stuck in harbour indefinitely. They can’t help anyone there.
This year’s Anzac Day marks 102 years since our Anzacs landed on the beach at Gallipoli in World War I. Today we pause and reflect on the sacrifice made by our service men and women who have fought for their country, with many who made the ultimate sacrifice.
TOPICS: US alliance, North Korea, immigration
On occasion of his retirement, Labor thanks Defence Secretary Dennis Richardson for his decades of professional and invaluable service to Australia. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Dennis has served in key national security and foreign service roles – Secretary of Defence, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Director-General of ASIO, and Ambassador to the United States to name a few. Australia is stronger and safer thanks to his work.
TOPIC/S: US air strikes in Syria
TOPICS: Syria; Robb Review into 2016 Election; Tax cuts; Housing affordability; Meeting between US and China
Labor supports the US military strike against the Shayrat Airfield and military depots as appropriate and proportionate, targeting the Assad Regime’s capability to conduct gas attacks against its civilian population. We support the US sending a strong signal that these gas attacks should have never occurred – and they should never occur again.
TOPICS: Darwin & Northern Territory Defence Industry, Robertson Barracks, Larrakeyah Barracks.
TOPICS: North Korean missile testing, Syrian conflict
Today’s ANAO into the Army’s workforce management has again showed Defence Minister Payne has no interest in doing her day job. The report found the Army has more positions than the Government has funded, and that 10 of the Army’s 99 workforce categories have either serious or critical workforce issues.
TOPICS: London terror attack; Government’s childcare changes; Omnibus cuts; 18C; Science meets parliament; China; Parliamentary questions
This week marks the 6th anniversary of the start of the Syrian civil war, a tragic conflict which has now claimed the lives of close to half a million people.
Christopher Pyne has finally recognised his government has failed to make sure Australia has the skills to build ships we need for our country’s security. It’s a shame it’s taken him so long to get there. There’s only one problem: where are the jobs? The bald truth is the Turnbull government is cutting jobs from ASC Pty Ltd, not adding them.
TOPICS: 18C, visit by Premier Li Keqiang, Australia-China relationship.
Last night the Turnbull Liberals tabled a report that contains little more than motherhood statements about the level of local industry engagement in Australia’s naval shipbuilding and submarine projects.
The very first act I undertook as a young lawyer at the Transport Workers Union, an act that I thought at the time was a very menial, small and routine was to vary the Transport Workers Award to update its superannuation clause. Just the beginning of reading Mary’s book makes you realise a small and menial act like that was part of a much larger achievement, a colossal achievement of the entirety of the Labor movement.
Labor calls on the Turnbull Liberals to honour their commitment to use Australian steel on the Future Submarines.
During evidence provided to a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday, Future Submarine project head Rear Admiral Gregory Sammut reportedly said that the Future Submarines may not have an Australian-made steel hull.
TOPICS: US alliance; China; North Korea; Syria
TOPICS: Prime Minister’s trip to Indonesia, Peter Dutton’s homeland security push, North Korea, US alliance.
Revelations at Estimates have caught out Christopher Pyne wasting taxpayers’ money and politicising national security in his ideological attack on renewables.
Marise Payne and Christopher Pyne are putting our national security at risk with their bungling of Australia’s Tiger helicopter program. The ANAO has found the amount of funding required to address caveats, capability deficiencies and obsolescence issues is unable to quantified.
TOPICS: Liberal leadership
TOPICS: Peter Dutton; Visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu; South China Sea.
TOPICS: Christmas break; energy policy, ABCC, Turnbull government’s cuts; US-Australia relationship; parliamentary voteT
Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore, which saw 7,500 Allied lives lost in conflict, and 15,000 Australians taken as prisoners – a third of whom would not survive the war. A National Service at the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat will form part of the commemorative events to mark this significant moment in the history of Australia and the Second World War.
TOPICS: Malcolm Turnbull’s performance; defence industry; South China Sea; diversity in the armed forces; asylum seeker swap
TOPICS: China-US relations, Australia-US relations
TOPIC: Malcolm Turnbull’s unprecedented $1.75 million donation to the Liberal Party
Local farmers, business operators and community members will find little comfort in claims by Tim Nicholls, Queensland LNP Leader that “I have spoken to the Prime Minister and he has now asked the Department to investigate alternative sites and locations, that’s the commitment I got”. The Prime Minister needs to talk to locals, not cut political deals with his mates.
Malcolm Turnbull needs to come out and declare exactly what agreement he reached with Donald Trump.
Just yesterday Malcolm Turnbull said:
“the Trump Administration has committed to progress with the arrangements to honour the deal, if you like, that was entered into with the Obama administration, and that was the assurance the President gave me when we spoke on the weekend.” Today, President Trump tweeted that he would ‘study this dumb deal’. Labor supports this deal going ahead – and it’s time Malcolm Turnbull stood up and levelled with Australians about whether he has a deal or not.
Today the Queensland LNP joined Labor in calling on the Prime Minister to finally start listening to those who will be adversely affected by the Government’s proposal to expand Defence training areas outside Rockhampton and Townsville. Labor welcomes the Queensland LNP’s intervention, albeit a bit late.
Defence Minister Marise Payne has questions to answer about whether she has misled the Parliament. Her testimony before Senate Estimates on May 6 was evasive at best about the Government’s plans to compulsorily acquire high-value farming land in Queensland as part of arrangements to expand military training areas for use by the Singapore Armed Forces.
TOPICS: South China Sea, President Trump, TPP
The black and white of the written word is an indelible witness to our lives. Once published and shared it becomes permanent: the public record , immutable and authoritative. And so the authors of these words matter, and late this year one of the finest ended a distinguished career with this newspaper.
From tomorrow, thousands of veterans will start the new year worse off under the Turnbull Government. Changes by the Turnbull Government to the pension asset test will leave thousands of veterans who are on the service pension, age pension or widows/widowers and in receipt of the income support supplement out of pocket.
The Shadow Defence team would like to wish all Defence staff, personnel and families a happy and peaceful holiday season and a safe New Year.
Federal Labor today welcomed the signing of an Agreement with the French Government on Australia’s Future Submarine Program. The Future Submarine Program will be central to Australia’s national security for decades to come. Delivering the program is a bipartisan commitment, and in government Federal Labor will ensure Australia has the sovereign submarine operation and sustainment capability our country needs.
Despite the Australian and French Governments signing a key agreement for the Future Submarines program neither government has been able to confirm how many Australian jobs will be created out of the project. The reports today that the Turnbull Government will commit to creating Australian jobs and use local content are vague at best and any commitment must be backed up by verified evidence from the Department of Defence.
The Turnbull Government’s acquisition of land to support enhanced training for Singapore’s Defence forces become another fiasco from a Government fast becoming renowned for its fiascos. Only last week Defence was saying every site other than that proposed at Charters Towers was “unsuitable for the training requirements”. Today, they’ve said they are looking at other options.
An ANAO review of base service management which found ballooning service costs and failing service delivery shows the Turnbull Government is not taking Defence seriously.
TOPICS: Syria; Turnbull government’s failure in the US relationship; China; Turnbull government’s jobs and growth failure
TOPICS: GDP figures, superannuation, negative gearing
TOPICS: ABCC, Asylum Seekers to US & Australian Defence in Syria
Labor welcomes the Government’s Veterans’ Employment Program. Labor has long said when there is more we can do to support our veterans it should be done. We know employment opportunities for veterans and their families create better opportunities for transition into civilian life.
The future submarine procurement is the biggest and the most important strategic challenge Australian defence today faces. It is the biggest military procurement in our history, and by some instruments it’s the biggest procurement undertaken military or civil by an Australian government.
Today at the 11th hour Australians observe one minute’s silence in memory of those who have died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. This year marks the 98th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War.
TOPICS: US Election 2016, Trump
TOPICS: US Election, Immigration, AUSMIN, Senator Culleton and Senator Day
TOPICS: Immigration Legislation; US election & Mosul
TOPICS: Housing Affordability, Paid Parental leave, US politics, domestic violence leave, Brandis v Mr Gleeson.
Labor welcomes the Turnbull Government’s decision to clarify Defence portfolio responsibilities more than 100 days after the election. It is no surprise considering yesterday’s embarrassing Senate Estimates hearing.
TOPICS: Mosul; South China Sea
Labor welcomes the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Military Training and Training Area Development in Australia.
In response to the Turnbull Government’s announcement that it will separate ASC into three individual companies, Labor has cautioned that, as with everything Malcolm Turnbull announces, the devil will be in the detail.
Interview with Karl Stefanovic, Christopher Pyne.
TOPIC/S: Resignation of Stephen Conroy
Malcolm Turnbull set the test for himself and failed, miserably. Not even Liberal Party supporters can name a single achievement of the Turnbull Government. It is one year since Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister and Defence is still plagued by indecision, inaction and his Government’s lack of direction.
Labor condemns North Korea’s latest nuclear test. The test is a provocative and dangerous act that threatens to undermine international peace and security, especially on the Korean Peninsula. The nuclear test is also in complete defiance of international law, and demands a strong response from the international community.
TOPICS: AFL Finals, Dastyari, Foreign donations, South China Sea, G20, Foreign land ownership, Defence industry.
Last night’s speech by the Turnbull Government’s Minister for Defence Industry on the importance of defence research, innovation and advanced manufacturing is one that is long overdue. Shadow Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, said that there is a real risk this speech by Minister Pyne will be just another example of the Turnbull Government parroting rhetoric but ultimately failing to deliver real outcomes.
TOPICS: Sam Dastyari, Foreign donations, Foreign ownership, Submarines, ISIS threats.
TOPICS: Sam Dastyari; South China Sea; Foreign ownership.
Less than a week after Christopher Pyne embarrassed Prime Minister Turnbull by allowing the Government to lose votes in the House of Representatives for the first time in fifty years he again has to explain himself. This time in relation to the handling of sensitive information by the contractor that will be building Australia’s submarines.
Today’s human health risk assessment of the Oakey Army Aviation Centre highlights the urgent need for nationally consistent health guidelines for acceptable levels of exposure to perfluorinated chemical contaminants. Without nationally consistent safety levels, authorities are forced to rely on interim or informal health guidance that could be revised or updated at any time. Affected communities deserve the certainty that comes from knowing what’s safe today won’t be considered unsafe tomorrow.
The Turnbull Government has left Australia’s submarine program unacceptably exposed to risk with only one person in the safety-crucial role of naval architect. The revelation underscores the Turnbull Government’s failure to match word with deed in addressing Australia’s looming Defence skills shortage.
TOPICS: Parliament, First Speeches, Royal Commission, Omnibus omnishambles, Senator Dastyari.
(ALEX SINNOTT, Geelong Advertiser) GEELONG’S federal representatives are at loggerheads over a same-sex marriage plebiscite, with any vote likely to be delayed until next year.
TOPICS: Budget Repair, Marriage Equality Plebiscite, Olympic results, National Broadband Network, AFP raids.
TOPICS: AFP raid; DCNS Submarine Leak
The Turnbull Government must take responsibility for today’s announcement by Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) of a further 175 job losses in its shipbuilding division. These job losses are an avoidable consequence of the Government’s complete failure to deliver a long-term ship building plan in Australia.
TOPICS: Pairing, Budget Repair, Long Tan, Reserve Bank.
Shadow Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, and Member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson, today met with residents and business people affected by the Williamtown RAAF base contamination issue at Salt Ash. Mr Marles joined Ms Swanson in calling on the Turnbull Government to honour its election promises regarding blood testing of affected residents and potential buybacks of their land, and compensation for losses.
Labor welcomes the Turnbull Government’s announcement today that the National Mental Health Commission will undertake a review of suicide and self-harm prevention services for our defence personnel.
TOPICS: Federal election 2016; South China Sea, Superannuation, British Open; Marc Leishman
TOPICS: Kevin Rudd, United Nations nomination
Labor has criticised the Liberal Government over its continued mismanagement of the LAND 400 project to acquire and support the next generation of armoured fighting vehicles.
It is a great privilege to be appointed as the Shadow Minister for Defence.
I look forward to working with Defence, the government and the various related community organisations and institutions in ensuring Australia’s security.
TOPICS: Federal election 2016; South China Sea, Superannuation, British Open; Marc Leishman
A Shorten Labor Government will maximise the growth potential of non-gateway airports including Avalon, servicing the Geelong region by ensuring they are formally classified as stand-alone airports.
MORE than 75,000 homes and businesses across the Geelong region will have access to the National Broadband Network as part of a major Labor election pledge.
Following the release of its positive plan to boost the rollout of the National Broadband Network in regional Australia, federal Labor has today announced a new initiative to help lift the growth of jobs and new firms beyond the nation’s capital cities.
PLANS to relocate Geelong hospice Anam Cara House from the CBD to a brand new and much larger facility at Armstrong Creek have taken a significant step forward.
Geelong will secure $7.5 million as part of the Opposition Leader’s pledge, with more than $33 million to be distributed statewide.
A no-frills budget is set to be handed down by the Federal Treasurer tonight but Geelong’s election contenders have fired their first fiscal arguments.
A defence jobs push by the Coalition has failed to deliver the goods at Geelong’s time of need, Corio MP Richard Marles says.
It is well-known that Geelong has suffered greatly at the hands of this government in job losses through the failure of the Turnbull government to have a proper manufacturing policy.
Today the Geelong Advertiser reports that the state government is providing $4 million towards the Geelong waterfront safe harbour project.
Opposition frontbencher Richard Marles has urged Liberal MP Sarah Henderson to lobby the Prime Minister for a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage.
Corio MP Richard Marles wants Geelong to take a leaf out of London’s book by establishing a trail of information boards highlighting the city’s significant sites and wealth of hidden history.
The evidence that Cardinal Pell has been giving to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has stirred the emotions of hundreds of thousands of Australians across the country.
Geelong has a rich and proud history—from its beginnings as a port servicing the gold rush, to the centre of a wool industry at the time when Australia rode on the back of the sheep, to more recent times with our role in manufacturing.
Last Saturday, 20 February, Cyclone Winston hit Fiji.
Michael Hickinbotham grew up knowing the formidable legend of his great-grandfather, Geelong Cats great Dave and hopes one of the city’s sacred sporting domains will soon carry his name.
Norma Willoughby has been left hanging on the telephone with her poor reception costing upwards of $200 a month.
I read with interest that this weekend gone, the Victorian Liberal State Council met in my electorate in Geelong.
In August 2011, I spoke to this place about the significance of our heritage in our local cemeteries.
There is no issue which gains more attention within my electorate of Corio than this government’s failed efforts in rolling out the National Broadband Network.
THE push for CCTV across the Bellarine has gained bipartisan support, with Labor and Liberal MPs working to gain funding for the cameras.
Geelong has a number of weekly local newspapers, among them GeelongNEWS and the Geelong echo, which give us their snapshot of the weekly news in our town midweek, GeelongNEWS in respect of that news which occurs within Geelong centre and to the north and the echo in terms of the news on the peninsula.
This morning I want to inform the House about a trial that I am seeking to establish for a Greater Geelong youth council, which would be a forum for constituents living in the electorate of Corio who are aged between 15 and 25.
Sixty-nine women have died so far this year from acts of violence in Australia, in the home.
A week or so ago at the Australian American Leadership Dialogue I was very heartened that a great deal of the focus of that discussion was on science and technology, in terms of students pursuing these studies at school and also the need to focus on science and technology as part of the future of our economy and particularly as something that we can gain in terms of our relationship with the United States.
A couple of weeks ago the Minister for Communications visited my electorate of Corio to spruik the government’s second-rate broadband network.
As a golfing tragic, I found myself spellbound by the TV a week ago as Jason Day produced one of the most remarkable rounds in the history of Australian golf.
Like the member for Gellibrand, I had enormous pleasure in attending the opening of the Regional Rail Link on Sunday, a project that was jointly conducted by both Labor governments federally and at a state level, a $3.9 billion project.
The camaraderie and friendship that comes with playing golf is something that the member for Mayo and I work on together as co-conveners of the Parliamentary Friends of Golf, and I very much hear his thoughts in that contribution and associate myself with them.
Tucked in behind the industrial precinct of Breakwater in my electorate is a remarkable structure, the Ovoid Sewer Aqueduct over Barwon River.
In an era where internet and technology is forever advancing, there are areas of Geelong that have been left off the NBN rollout plan.
With your indulgence, Mr Deputy Speaker, before I just acknowledge Matthew Kinnia, who is a student at Western Heights College in my electorate.
Like the member for O’Connor, I am awaiting eagerly what the Abbott government has in store for the rollout of the NBN to people in my electorate of Corio.
Geelong parliamentarians Richard Marles and John Eren have tried to imagine how the conversation might have gone against Gallipoli’s brutal backdrop.
Labor fully supports today’s calls by the mental health sector, calling on the Prime Minister to maintain funding for mental health services.
A year and a month ago, on 18 February 2014, a very significant economic knock shocked Geelong to its core—a knock that the Abbott Liberal government, more than a year on, has yet to address in any meaningful way.
I rise today to speak about health care, a service which means so much for so many in Australia.
On 18 February, Alcoa made its very difficult decision to cease operations in Geelong at Point Henry.
I rise to speak about the Abbott government’s proposed $157 million cut to family day care services and how this will unfairly impact on mums and dads in my community of Geelong.
Community television is an integral part of Geelong’s local news and media services.
Geelong is losing out to regional rival Ballarat because the rollout of the National Broadband Network has stalled, city leaders say.
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