This week is World Refugee Week. We mark it at a time when more people than ever before have been forced to flee their homes. Last week the UNHCR reported that 82.4 million people have been forcibly displayed. 82.4 million. In a global pandemic. The scale is staggering; almost impossible to process.
Read MoreIt was my pleasure to be in the chamber for the contribution by my friend the member for Macnamara—in particular, for the proposition with which he ended his remarks. The question he asked is a question that everyone who has the privilege to stand in this place and in the other place should be able to answer: did we make decisions that led to a better future?
Read MoreI rise to speak on the COVID-19 Disaster Payment (Funding Arrangements) Bill 2021. This is the bill that will provide time-limited financial assistance to eligible workers who are unable to earn their usual income as a result of public health restrictions, such as public health orders imposed by state or territory governments, and where...
Read MoreWe hear a lot of talk about Clive Palmer's wealth—which of course has doubled in the course of this pandemic while workers' wages have stagnated—but it's his value we should talk about more. It's his value that matters, and that is negligible at best. I'd say his contribution to our society has to be regarded as negative.
Read MoreI rise to pay tribute to an extraordinary constituent of mine: Connie Boglis, a woman who has done so much for so many. Today Connie has been in Canberra in conjunction with the announcement of a new sculpture to be installed at the War Memorial called Every Drop Shed in Anguish, which is for all those who experience trauma from military service...
Read MoreThis is a government of tactics and not strategy, of reaction and not decision, of politics and not policy—much less purpose—and of cruelty and not compassion. After eight long years the administration of the Home Affairs portfolio fundamentally speaks to this. The question for the new minister is: how can she? She has said that compassion comes in many forms...
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