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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES · FORMER

Tanya Plibersek

Sydney · Australian Labor Party · Australia

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

The Redress Scheme has, since 2018, received 80,000 applications and disbursed over $2 billion in redress payments to survivors. Thousands have received apologies or counselling that have changed their lives. That acknowledgement has changed their lives.

SITTING OF 2026-07-02 · READ IN HANSARD

The scheme's operating expenses are met by taxpayers, who also step in as a funder of last resort for compensation payments, so the financial impacts obviously go beyond the victim-survivors themselves.

SITTING OF 2026-07-02 · READ IN HANSARD

I want to take the opportunity to note recent media reports, particularly those in the Australian Financial Review , which said: Edmund Rice Education was created in 2007 and now operates dozens of schools affiliated with the Christian Brothers. … The split created a new organisation with the bulk of the Christian Brothers assets.

SITTING OF 2026-07-02 · READ IN HANSARD

And of course they are also part of the larger group of people that are eligible now, because we've increased thresholds. Thanks to our changes, families now get around $30,000 of paid parental leave. That's more than double what it was when we came to government. But it's not just about paid parental leave.

SITTING OF 2026-07-02 · READ IN HANSARD

The federal government is gravely concerned about the Christian Brothers Oceania Province's 22 June 2026 announcement that it would seek creditor and court approval for a creditors scheme of arrangement and a moratorium on all current and future civil proceedings in connection with child sexual abuse claims.

SITTING OF 2026-07-02 · READ IN HANSARD

Thanks so much to the member for Cunningham. I know that she is out and about in her electorate all the time, and she knows that over 1,800 parents benefited from paid parental leave in her electorate just last year. Last week, I met Baby Zoe and her mum and dad. Baby Zoe is number three in a family of three children.

SITTING OF 2026-07-02 · READ IN HANSARD

The complete record

Every one of 331 lines we hold for Tanya Plibersek, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 7.

  1. Last month, alongside Minister Clare O'Neil, we opened the new accommodation for the Haymarket Centre, helping people who have been homeless, many of them with mental health conditions or drug and alcohol dependence—beautiful new homes to provide them with a safe place to rebuild their lives. Living there has been a life-changing experience for people like Georgia, who I met on that day.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  2. And, of course, there's our $1.2 billion investment into crisis and transitional housing, which the member for Gilmore was talking about earlier. We're supporting people, particularly groups like women and children fleeing domestic violence, to find stable and safe accommodation in times of need. In my electorate of Sydney, we are already seeing those homes change lives. In 2024, Bridge Housing in Glebe opened its doors—stable, affordable homes. Last year, I opened the Boronia Apartments, a social housing project in Waterloo, with the state housing minister, Rose Jackson, who's doing such a great job.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  3. We're also backing tax reform to help another 75,000 Australians realise that dream. Beyond levelling the playing field, we're doing crucial work to address housing supply. The member for Nicholls was talking about new investment in infrastructure as though the coalition invented that policy. They said they'd go to the last election with a policy to do that. Well, we had a policy to do that under the Rudd government—$502 million at that time for the Housing Affordability Fund. It helped with projects like Plantation Palms in Mackay, where 400 homebuyers saved $20,000 each, and Edmondson Park, where 88 homes got a $25,000 rebate—hundreds of thousands of people helped then. We're also working with states to cut red tape and planning delays, to build tens of thousands of new homes.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  4. Housing changes lives. It provides safety, security, a place you can put down roots and build a brighter future. But, for decades, too many Australians have been locked out of the housing market. A longstanding shortage has made homes unaffordable, and our tax settings have made it worse. Housing has become an investment rather than a place to live. The reforms in this budget build on our work to change that, lifting our total investment in housing to a record $47 billion. Already, our five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers has helped more than 300,000 Australians previously locked out of the housing market into a home of their own. In my electorate, that number was 583 at last count. I met Codie in Rosebery in September 2024, who told me she bought her $690,000 new home with a five per cent deposit.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  5. I want you to know that this bill is a significant and necessary foundation, but we won't stop here. This lays the groundwork for future reforms, and we will keep working with you to keep future generations of children safe.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  6. We've invested a record $3.9 billion in services, with an extra $800 million for family violence legal services. We've reformed the family law system so that it's safer, simpler and more accessible. And, Mr Deputy Speaker, you would know that last night in the budget we announced significant reforms to the child support system as well, to better protect children. We are doing so much in this area because it is such an enormous need in our community. I do want to finish by repeating my thanks to the brave victims-survivors who've come forward to demand this change, for sharing their stories, for seeking justice and for fighting to fix something that, at its heart, is absolutely, demonstratively cruel and deeply unfair. I say to you again: thank you.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  7. But, across sexual, family and domestic violence, we have invested more than any previous government, more than $4.4 billion in frontline services, in preventive programs and in behaviour-change programs right across government. We've made the leaving-violence payment permanent. We've launched Australia's first-ever standalone plan on family, domestic and sexual violence for First Nations women and children, backed by $218 million in the budget last night. We've boosted funding for the 500 Workers program by more than 70 per cent. We've boosted funding for 1800RESPECT by 40 per cent. We've legislated to make sure that our social security system can't be weaponised by perpetrators of abuse. We've supported the recovery of children who've experienced violence, investing $81 million for services, including child-specific counselling.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  8. We are working across family, domestic and sexual violence to make sure that we are ending violence against women and children as a priority, and every single one of us in this place has a role to play. Child sexual abuse, of course, is a crime that doesn't just affect girls. It affects boys in too large numbers. It is important to understand that many grown women and men have a history of child sexual abuse that has followed them throughout their lives and impacted them throughout their lives. So far, our government has worked with victims of child sexual abuse on measures like the memorial that will be opened in Canberra in coming years and the Orphanage Museum in Victoria as well.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  9. It removes the ability for any perpetrator to wait out their obligations, protecting their financial position at the expense of a victim-survivor. Importantly, this bill ensures that compensation debts don't disappear through bankruptcy, not just for future bankruptcies but also for those currently in progress. It is beyond imagining how absolutely, completely unprincipled the people who have taken advantage of these provisions in the past are. First of all, to sexually abuse a child, to have that proved, to have compensation awarded against you and then to deliberately shelter your assets from paying the compensation that has been justly awarded really does add the most incredible insult to a lifelong injury. We know that this is just one area where reform is badly needed.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  10. It will close an unjust, unfair, cruel loophole that has been exploited by convicted sex offenders to hide their assets in superannuation. Meanwhile, victims and survivors have been left without the compensation that the courts have decided that they are owed. It will make sure that a court ruling in a victim or survivor's favour translates into real outcomes. Where a court ordered compensation debt remains unpaid after 12 months, victims-survivors will be able to seek access through a court order to certain superannuation contributions that have been made by the perpetrator of the abuse. This includes additional personal and salary sacrifice contributions, which are often used as a way to shield assets from enforcement. This is practical, and it's targeted.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  11. I want to start by thanking the brave victims and survivors who have lent their voices to this campaign. After unspeakable trauma and unimaginable grief, you've shown courage, strength and determination, making sure that no other victim will continue to suffer at the hands of their perpetrator long after a judgement is handed down. We owe you a great deal. I say this unequivocally: our government is absolutely committed to holding perpetrators of child sexual abuse to account. The crimes they have committed are abhorrent. They should not have the opportunity to further add to someone's trauma by denying them the compensation that is rightfully owed. They should not be able to hide or avoid accountability, and that's what this bill will fix.

    SITTING OF 2026-05-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  12. Today, as Babana brings businesses together with its members, I have no doubt that more practical steps will be taken and more lives will be transformed. Solutions that grow out of local communities are the solutions that endure. I want to congratulate Babana for the wonderful work they do to employ people to make sure that they've got all of the basics of life sorted.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  13. That might mean helping someone make better financial decisions, helping them get their ID sorted or helping them pay a fine so they can reclaim their licence so they can get a job. At Babana, solutions and pathways to financial independence grow out of the monthly men's group. It's a safe place to yarn, to admit personal challenges and to identify realistic opportunities for work. Men in this group identified traffic controlling as a job they could do and wanted to do. A conversation with local businessman and member of the Redfern Aboriginal community Shane Phillips led to contact with a traffic management business and the subsequent creation of Babana Traffic Control. Babana Traffic Control now employs people across Sydney—many of them not just the Indigenous men who came up with the idea but Indigenous women too.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  14. What started as a small, informal group of local men in 2006— A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 10:01 to 10:15 What started as a small, informal group of local men in 2006 quickly grew to a much larger number with a much larger impact, and, some 20 years later, Babana's impact now resonates well beyond our local community in Redfern. At Babana, they understand that complex problems are addressed through practical solutions. There is an understanding that poor mental health, for example, is often the consequence, and not the cause, of economic exclusion, and that finding a pathway to financial independence first requires dealing with the basics.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  15. I want to talk today about a fantastic organisation in my electorate. 'Babana' means 'brother' in the Dharuk language, and it's a unique brotherhood that embraces Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men. It's powered by the simple but very powerful idea that self-determination begins with small practical steps. By providing a safe and supportive place for First Nations men, the Babana Aboriginal Men's Group are helping their families and communities. Over 20 years, this small organisation, founded by Mark Spinks and Jeremy Heathcote, has demonstrated its outsized power to transform lives. Babana initially grew from Mark Spinks's determination to help the Indigenous men who walked through the door of Centrelink in Redfern, where he worked.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  16. Since we came to government, aged pensions have gone up by about $5½ thousand dollars a year, unemployment benefits have gone up about $4,300 a year, and Commonwealth rent assistance has gone up $1,900 a year.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  17. Vinnies said, 'This funding is welcome and necessary.' Anglicare said, 'This funding will help make sure people can get support when they need it most.' Of course, we're investing almost $460 million over five years in supports like this. When those opposite were in government, they cut $20 million a year from these programs. That's not all we're doing to help Australians with the cost of living. There are tax cuts and more tax cuts coming for every taxpayer. We've been supporting wage increases, paid parental leave expansion, three-day childcare guarantee, cheaper medicines, more bulk-billing, five per cent deposits for first home buyers and free TAFE and cutting student debts.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  18. I was very pleased today to be able to announce that the Albanese Labor government is investing an extra $11.7 million in emergency relief funding for services like Vinnies and others right around Australia. That includes $8½ million for 196 Commonwealth funded emergency relief providers. Those services will get an extra 15 per cent on top of their annual funding. We announced that today. That will help them with things like food parcels for families that need that help. We're also putting almost $2¼ million extra into financial counselling and an extra million dollars for emergency relief providers that are in those Top End areas that have been impacted by Tropical Cyclone Narelle. The extra funding has been welcomed by UnitingCare, Anglicare, the Salvation Army and, of course, St Vincent de Paul Society.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  19. Thanks so much to the member for Canberra for her question. I was really pleased this morning to visit Vinnies Samaritan House here in Canberra with the member for Canberra and to meet Brett and Elizabeth and the whole team there at Samaritan House. We know that members right across this parliament love the work that Vinnies and services like Vinnies do around Australia, helping people at times of need. The war in Iran is a long way from Australia, but the impacts are being felt here. We're doing our very best to make sure that we're keeping the fuel supplies coming, but we're also doing our best to help Australians with the cost of living and the pressure that that's putting on Australian families.

    SITTING OF 2026-04-01 · READ IN HANSARD

  20. A lot of those debts actually cost more to collect than they return when they're collected. This builds on cheaper medicines—the maximum cost for a script for pensioners is now $7.70; a bulk-billing boost; five per cent deposits for first home buyers; free TAFE; the 20 per cent cut to student debt. We know that those opposite, of course, would put all of that at risk. They love voting against cost-of-living help for ordinary Australians.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-24 · READ IN HANSARD

  21. In the member for Richmond's electorate, it was 25,480 aged pensioners who saw their pensions go up. We know that Australians are feeling the pinch, and these adjustments help keep up with cost-of-living changes. The changes that came into effect last Friday saw the full aged pension—now $5,500 more than when we came to government. They see jobseekers who've got $4,300 a year more since we came to government. Rent assistance has gone up; the maximum rate has gone up by about $1,900 a year since we came to government. And, for the first time in 30 years, we've seen an increase to the threshold for the small debt waiver, making sure that our system is fairer and better value for taxpayers. The waiver is now set at $250. So around 1.2 million small debts will not be collected this year.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-24 · READ IN HANSARD

  22. Thanks so much to the member for Richmond. It was wonderful to visit a great local service that provides emergency relief to her electorate when I was up her way just recently. I know that, like the member for Richmond, all of us believe that we want people to have jobs. We want them to have good, secure jobs. Since coming to government, we've seen the minimum wage go up $9,000. We've seen tax cuts for every taxpayer—more to come. But, when people can't work, of course they need a social security system that supports them, or, if they're aged pensioners, of course they deserve to retire with dignity. That's why we're so proud on this side that, last Friday 20 March, more than five million social security recipients saw a boost to their payments—a $2.6 billion boost to their payments.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-24 · READ IN HANSARD

  23. We are for workplace flexibility, including working from home, and we are for supporting families to look after their kids with that security.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  24. It's not my choice that women have children.' Now we've got the Leader of the National Party who said in response to Baby Priya's bill that women were going to deliberately get pregnant and have late term abortions to get paid parental leave. We've got the Leader of the Opposition who went to the election saying that he wanted to see higher taxes and lower wages for working mums. We've got a Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the other place—I mean, I think that's her title; it's not very clear—who wanted to cut off access to working from home for working mums. Essentially, they are all over the place on supports for working families. What we know for certain on this side is that we are for paid parental leave. We are for cheaper child care. We are for higher wages and lower taxes for working mums.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  25. More money—each week recipients will get a higher payment, $200 a week more, and superannuation for the first time on paid parental leave because of decisions this government has made. More flexibility—more time for mums and dads to take off together, and, of course, more people are eligible. Since we came to government in 2022, someone receiving paid parental leave is $12,000 better off. We've almost doubled paid parental leave. Of course, we are very clear that we are for more and better paid parental leave. Those on the other side are, frankly, all over the place on this. We had the former treasurer who called mothers double dippers. We had the former Prime Minister who called them rorters. We've got the current shadow treasurer who says, about their own scheme, 'It's a very bad scheme.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  26. Thanks so much to the member for Holt. She is a big supporter of paid parental leave for all those young families in her electorate that rely on it and benefit from it. As I've said before, it is really surprising that Australia was one of the very few developed countries in the world not to have a paid parental leave scheme before the Rudd and Gillard governments. We are so proud of the fact that it was Labor that introduced paid parental leave and that it is Labor that continues to expand paid parental leave. We are providing more time, more money, more flexibility and more people with this benefit. More time—this year we will get to six months of paid parental leave.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  27. We've implemented 10 days paid domestic violence leave, we've reformed the family law system to make it safer, we've worked with states and territories to improve justice responses to sexual violence and we've provided a 40 per cent funding boost for 1800RESPECT. That's just a fraction of what we're doing, because no Australian should live in fear and no Australian should live with violence. We are committed to making sure that happens.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-04 · READ IN HANSARD

  28. It's about making the leaving violence payment permanent, as just one example, so victims have the financial support to leave safely. We've passed legislation to make sure our social security system can't be weaponised against victims of violence. We've launched 'Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices', the nation's first standalone First Nations plan to end family, domestic and sexual violence, with $218 million more funding. We've funded programs that intervene earlier with men who want to change their behaviour and stop using violence. We've invested more than $1.2 billion, as the housing minister said, in emergency and transitional housing. We've invested $3.9 billion in legal services, including $800 million specifically for family violence services.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-04 · READ IN HANSARD

  29. Today I was delighted to visit the YWCA here in Canberra and meet with YWCA staff and Canberra Rape Crisis Centre staff. Both of those organisations have benefited from these extra frontline workers that we are funding. I was delighted to announce today an extra $291.7 million to expand this program by 70 per cent. We'll continue funding to 2030 and make more of these workers available right around Australia every day. This means that, since coming to government, we have invested almost half a billion dollars in this one program alone. This is one program that's part of our over $4 billion investment in family, domestic and sexual violence since coming to government. It's about frontline services. It's about prevention. It's about perpetrator behaviour change. It's about programs for children.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-04 · READ IN HANSARD

  30. I thank the member for Corangamite for her very important question. I know that she is absolutely committed, as all of us are, to making sure we end family, domestic and sexual violence in this country. Frontline workers are literally saving lives every single day across this country. They're helping with safety planning. They're counselling children who've been impacted by family and domestic violence. They're helping women plan to leave safely. They're helping them access finances and some of the thousands of new homes that the Minister for Housing was talking about earlier. They're helping perpetrators of violence change their behaviour. They are doing literally life-saving work every single day. I'm so proud of our policy to deliver 500 extra frontline workers right across Australia.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-04 · READ IN HANSARD

  31. On this side, we're clear about what we support. We support paid parental leave. We support cheaper child care. We support higher wages and lower taxes for working mums. We support flexibility at work. We support lowering the gender pay gap. The biggest risk to all of that is those opposite.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-03 · READ IN HANSARD

  32. He said: I despise this attitude that is creeping into society, where we increasingly look at children as a burden and not a blessing … people have choices in their lives, and they have to live with the consequences of them, both positive and negative. We've got a shadow Treasurer that doesn't understand that children are not simply a private blessing; they are a public good. They are a blessing for all of us, and that's why, on this side, we want to help families when they're having children. Those opposite had a leader that went to the last election arguing for higher taxes and lower wages for working mums. They've got a deputy leader who said that she wanted to get rid of work from home. She still says that. She says, 'That's a policy whose time will come.' And we've got a shadow Treasurer who doesn't back paid parental leave.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-03 · READ IN HANSARD

  33. These families will get more time, more weeks together, more money, higher payments and, of course, superannuation paid on paid parental leave. That means they will be about $4½ thousand better off in retirement, as well as while they're getting paid parental leave. There's more flexibility; more time parents can spend together; of course, more people are eligible; and, when mums and dads get back to work, they'll get cheaper child care as well. Of course, those opposite have been a shambles when it comes to paid parental leave. The now shadow Treasurer, the member for Goldstein, said, 'Paid parental leave, to me, is a very bad scheme.' He said this about the Liberals proposed paid parental leave scheme. He said: … it's not my choice that women have children. It's genetic!

    SITTING OF 2026-03-03 · READ IN HANSARD

  34. I want to thank the member for Macquarie. I know she's a big supporter of paid parental leave, and I know that, like me, she remembers that Australia was one of the few developed countries in the world that had no government funded paid parental leave before the Rudd and Gillard governments. We are so very proud, on this side, that we have not just established paid parental leave but are expanding it, and, from 1 July this year, we're going to expand it again. Families will get the full six months of paid parental leave. In fact, under this prime minister, we have almost doubled paid parental leave. Since Labor was elected, families are $12,000 better off when they have a child, and 180,000 families every year will benefit from this.

    SITTING OF 2026-03-03 · READ IN HANSARD

  35. He released those dodgy documents around Clover Moore's travel. There's the Jam Land saga. There are the dodgy water buybacks. He said he lived up the road from Naomi Wolf at Oxford. She wasn't there at the time. It was reported that a prominent Liberal woman said of the member for Hume, that he is a 'caricature of a Liberal male—males who have managed to progressively alienate women from the Liberal Party'. It does seem to me that, any day of the week, an average bloke in the Liberal Party wins over a woman, and the only real qualifications you need are the XY chromosomes.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  36. Australians getting paid parental leave are about $12,000 better off under this prime minister. So, after 40 weeks of carrying a baby, mums and dads can look forward to six months off. But I'd say this Leader of the Opposition, after 39 weeks of carrying the Liberal Party, can also look forward to a little bit of time off from the job. It's interesting that the member for Hume has said that a crusade was needed to attract more women to the Liberal Party. He said: We absolutely need more women in the party at every level … I don't think he meant every level. Let's not forget it's the member for Hume that trashed the economic reputation of the Liberal Party. He went to the last election promising both higher taxes and higher deficits. He's the man who hid energy price increases.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  37. I really want to thank the member for Dunkley for her question, because I know that not only is she a great supporter of the work that this government is doing on family and domestic violence but she knows how important the increases to pensions and other payments in her electorate have been. I'm very proud to say that on this side of the House we are absolutely focused on helping Australian families. That means up to $5,000 extra if you're on a pension. It means $1,800 extra in rent assistance. It means cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, higher wages, lower taxes, five per cent deposits, cuts to student debt, free TAFE—a whole range of measures to take pressure off families, including almost doubling the amount of paid parental leave since we've come to government.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  38. When we get it right for this generation, every subsequent generation benefits. I commend the office of the commissioner and the bill to the House.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  39. This will be the first permanent statutory agency independent from government with a dedicated focus on promoting the rights, interests, development, safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. This bill empowers the national commissioner to speak directly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people and drive greater accountability for the systems and policies that affect those young people. The government will invest $33½ million over the forward estimates and $8.4 million ongoing to ensure that the national commissioner can deliver on their statutory functions and responsibilities. Legislating an independent national commissioner responds to decades of advocacy by many First Nations leaders. When we get it right for children and young people, our nation benefits.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  40. In both Lil Gordon, the interim commissioner, and now Sue-Anne Hunter, the permanent National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Young People, we have extraordinary advocates who I am convinced will make a difference to some of these stubborn inequalities that we as a government are determined to shift. We know there is more that we need to do as a government and as a nation to shift this inequality. We expect more from the states and territories. We know that communities and families need to be supported to deliver more for the children they love and care for. These bills will legislate the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People under new primary legislation.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  41. I say to those members who have indicated that they won't be supporting these bills that I understand what some of them have said about not wanting to replace real action with bureaucracy, and I want to reassure them that that is the very furthest thing from what we intend with these bills. The simple truth is that we have let down children and young people in this country, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, over many decades. We set out some targets in the Closing the Gap strategy, and in many areas we're going the wrong way on those targets, or the inequalities that have been identified are stubbornly persistent. We can't keep doing the same thing and expect to get a different outcome. We need to change what we're doing.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  42. All children and young people deserve to grow up with their rights, interests and wellbeing protected. I'm very pleased to say that the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People is joining us today in the gallery to see the final stages of what we hope will be the passage of this very important legislation, the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Bill 2026 and the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026. I want to thank all members who spoke in this debate, particularly those members who supported the bills.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  43. I know that all members would support this work, because it's only by this investment led by and delivered by First Nations communities that we'll see real change.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-10 · READ IN HANSARD

  44. We can work with men who are at risk of using violence, to stop them using violence. This new investment comes on top of $262 million, which was committed in 2023, which is already making a difference—for example, in establishing men's centres that are working with men to prevent them using violence; or the $367 million which has more than doubled funding for family violence prevention legal services; the Leaving Violence Program, which so far has helped 10½ thousand people leave domestic violence; or our investment in housing—more than $5 billion in emergency and transitional housing and for remote housing in the Northern Territory. I'm proud of the fact that the Albanese government is changing the story on family, domestic and sexual violence in this country.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-10 · READ IN HANSARD

  45. Today we have delivered on our election commitment to release a dedicated national plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to end violence against women and children. The statistics are grim. An Aboriginal woman is seven times more likely to die in a domestic homicide than a non-Indigenous woman, 27 times more likely to be hospitalised due to intimate partner violence, and 41 times more likely if they live in a remote or regional community. That simply cannot continue. Importantly, this plan has been endorsed by every state and territory, and it comes with significant extra funding: an additional $218 million so that we can change the story on the ground. We can send out mobile teams to help women leave unsafe situations. We can work with children who've been exposed to domestic violence, to stop their trauma.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-10 · READ IN HANSARD

  46. I want to thank the member for Lingiari, who for many decades has been standing up for the safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children and communities right across Australia. I also want to thank the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities who shared their advice, their stories and their insights in the drafting of this report, Our ways strong ways our voices . I want to thank the members of the steering committee for their work. It's your courage and it's your commitment that drives this plan. Today is an historic day. For many decades, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have been telling us they want safety for themselves and for their children.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-10 · READ IN HANSARD

  47. At the moment, we know that we're letting too many children down. We have the opportunity to change that and, as a government, we are absolutely committed to doing that. Question agreed to. F ederation Chamber adjourned at 13:32

    SITTING OF 2026-02-05 · READ IN HANSARD

  48. We know that there are still too many gaps for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people when it comes to starting school with developmental delays and when it comes to the way that mainstream services, like our big health and education systems, serve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It's why we need to address the unacceptable number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering our out-of-home care systems and juvenile justice systems. We need to make sure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids can expect all of the same good things as any child in this country: great education systems, starting school school-ready, thriving through their schooling years with a great job at the end of it, and specialist systems that work for them, too.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-05 · READ IN HANSARD

  49. It's why we're investing in essential frontline services, it's why we're making sure that universities respond appropriately to the unacceptable rates of sexual assault on campus, and it's why we're making changes to the family law system, as well, to make sure that the presumption of shared responsibility is properly understood so that we continue to put the best interests of children at the very heart of any decisions in family law. This is about making sure that all of our systems work for victims of family, domestic and sexual violence. Today I was very proud to introduce a bill establishing an independent National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-05 · READ IN HANSARD

  50. We need to take account of changes in technology, and that's why we've taken world-leading action to address the impact of harmful technology like nudify apps and undetectable stalking tools. It's why we're investing in educating young men and boys, in particular, about consent and healthy relationships. We know that there are a lot of amazing role models out there doing fantastic work. We need to make sure that more young men and boys have that influence in their lives.

    SITTING OF 2026-02-05 · READ IN HANSARD