Dan Tehan
Wannon · Liberal Party · Australia
“We all remember the budget speech of this year, which had all those toxic taxes and broken promises. Those toxic taxes and broken promises are getting bigger by the day, especially the broken promises. Who remembers the Treasurer saying: 'Reforming and strengthening care.”
“I move: That subparagraph (6)(b) in paragraph (1) of the motion be amended to read: "(b) Opposition member as its deputy chair who shall act as chair of the committee at any time when the chair is not present at a meeting of the committee;" The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade has had a very long tradition of…”
“I think it's really important that that continues, and I hope that the government will support this amendment, which would continue that long tradition and make sure this very important committee can continue to do that important work.”
“I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member from Wannon from moving the following censure motion immediately: This House censures the Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for Pacific Island Affairs for comments made today at the National Press Club—”
“on indulgence—This is obviously an issue between the teals and the government. There's obviously been some disagreement about how the House should be managed. Our hope is that the teals and the government will be able to work it out and that this issue won't further delay all the bills.”
“I can tell you that people will vote with their feet at the next Victorian state election unless this is fixed—and fixed quickly. They're sick of standing on their feet for the whole three hours because of this failure.”
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“My hope is that the state government and the federal government are working on that and we're going to get an announcement soon. This will be a game changer. If we can get that sort of commitment to numbers, in the 120 range, it would be fantastic. Not only that; it would then allow for research and development to take place in and around the childcare centre so we can make sure that we're continuing to do very important work when it comes to child care. We've seen this take place at Wollongong University, and it has been very successful. What it has done more than anything else is enable us to continue to have a supply of early childhood educators so that, when we have a childcare drought, we can make sure that we've got the workers that we need. The biggest issue that we have in our region is making sure that we've got the workforce.”
“I rise this afternoon to talk about the need for action when it comes to child care in my electorate of Wannon. We currently have a childcare drought in the electorate of Wannon, and we need urgent action when it comes to child care. The government has talked a big game about universal child care and various things that came out of a Productivity Commission report, but the fact of the matter is that what we actually need is just child care delivered into our region. There are many, many quick ways in which the government could do this. It's for both federal and state government. For instance, one of the things that I campaigned for very heavily during the last election campaign was the opportunity for us to get a new childcare centre with a capacity of up to 120 at the Deakin campus of Warrnambool.”
“We won't be issuing talking points which used to say, 'We will reduce your power bill by $275,' but now just say, 'Energy prices will come down in the long-term,' whatever that means. Is that by 2050, 2060 or 2070? Who would know?”
“It's complete silence from them, over there, because they know that they don't have anything to say in response. When they're out in their constituencies, what are they hearing? They're hearing that electricity prices continue to rise. Our No. 1 priority will be to reduce electricity prices, to put downward pressure on electricity prices. That is what we will do. The minister isn't here. He was too embarrassed to come in because this is the first bill he's put into this parliament on anything to do with energy since the May election, and it's about shuffling the deckchairs. I say to the minister: we will be focused on putting downward pressure on energy prices.”
“And guess what the minister is here doing, as his first bill? He's shuffling the deckchairs in the bureaucracy. So it's no wonder he sent another minister in to do it, because it would just show once again what a complete and utter farce this minister is. As a matter of fact, the only job that should go from these higher electricity prices is the minister's job. That is the job that should go, not the jobs of those poor workers out there. We're going to keep reminding you every single day of that fact. This is just another example of why that minister should move on, given the crisis that we're starting to see with electricity prices, because here he is, shuffling the deckchairs of the bureaucracy. How out of touch can you get? It beggars belief.”
“They've heard the recent inflation numbers. What was the inflation number from yesterday? It showed that electricity costs rose by 23.6 per cent for the year to September, and the only reason they didn't rise further is that you had to subsidise those bills. Those are the facts. And yet here we are. Given all of this—that prices are going through the roof—what is the first bill the minister brings into the parliament? Guess what it is. It's about shuffling the deckchairs in the bureaucracy. It beggars belief, seriously! We've got energy prices going through the roof, and Minister Bowen decides, 'What I need to do is shuffle the deckchairs.' That's really going to fix the issues! We've had, just this week, the announcement that Tomago, sadly, is likely to close. Over 5,000 workers are going to lose their jobs.”
“'Every time you mention that energy prices are going to go down, you've got to say "in the long term".' These are the new talking points: 'Energy prices will go down in the long term.' People remember that it wasn't just a commitment to reduce power bills by $275 by the end of this year; there was also a further commitment. Now, obviously, you're walking away from that as well. That's why this expression 'in the long term' has come in. Of course, the minister won't come in and speak to this bill because he knows that what it will show is how embarrassing the situation is that he has got Australia into. Energy bills aren't going down; everyone knows that. Everyone sees it every three months when they open their power bill. When they open their electricity bill, it's up by 39 per cent. Their gas bill is up by 38 per cent.”
“It's no wonder that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy didn't come into the chamber to speak on this bill, because, if you'd ever wanted an example of how out of touch this minister is, this is just another example of it. What we've seen since the election is that the government has had to walk away from their commitment to reduce Australians' power bills by $275. After looking the Australian people in the eye on it, on over 90 occasions, they've now had to walk away from it. It was funny today in the MPI. They've got new talking points. Guess what the new talking points say?”
“What they're doing is spending all their time trying to hide documents which show that, once the bureaucrats briefed them, it was clear that they had to do something about electricity prices. What we think is that all those blank pages show that electricity prices are forecast to double. What is that going to do to inflation? If they think that's not the case then they should release the whole document. Otherwise, what it shows is they do not have electricity prices under control.”
“Earlier this week the Minister for Climate Change and Energy was forced by the Senate to release the incoming ministerial brief on electricity prices—he'd tried to hide it since May—but the sad reality is that what he released still had blank pages right through it. Now, what was the minister trying to hide? He was trying to hide the fact that electricity prices are driving inflation through the roof in this country. That's going to have a real impact on families and on businesses, because unless you can drive energy prices down, sadly, what we're going to see is inflation continue to rise and rise in this country. What are those opposite doing to try and stop this?”
“We've got wonderful, wonderful nominations from right across the electorate again, and I say to everyone who has been nominated that I can't wait to see you on the day. I can't wait to be able to congratulate you for everything that you've done for our wonderful communities because you've earnt and deserve that recognition. This is a small way that our communities can say a huge thank you to you, because, without volunteers, our country communities wouldn't be as strong as they are—and they're as strong as any community in Australia. As a matter of fact, I would say we are stronger because I think our ethos of volunteering is stronger. So a huge thank you, and I look forward to seeing you soon.”
“We always do it the same way: we do the wonderful people who volunteer in and around our sporting clubs and then the wonderful people who volunteer for our community organisations. We'll usually get 250 or 300 people at both the morning and the afternoon events. You hear the stories of what people who volunteer in our communities do, and it never ceases to amaze me. It is the most humbling day on my calendar right throughout the year. These people don't want any credit for what they do—they don't want the accolades; they don't want the applause—but, when you're able to recognise them, you can just see the joy that it brings to them because they absolutely love what they do, and they love what they do because they love their communities. That just shines out. I'll be hosting my sport and volunteer awards again in November. I can't wait.”
“My message to the Prime Minister is: it's all well and good, doing what you're doing overseas, but you have to have a laserlike focus on what is happening on the ground here in Australia, and the cost of living remains a key concern to people. I will continue to hold you to account for the fact that my communities are continuing to struggle with the cost of living, because nothing your government is doing is seeking to ease those cost-of-living pressures, and people want them addressed. One of the great days on my calendar every year is when I host the Wannon Sport and Volunteer Awards. People are nominated from right across the wonderful Wannon electorate, and they come together.”
“But it's followed closely by the cost of living. People are saying to me, how can they deal with the cost of groceries; how can they deal with the cost of insurance; and how can they deal with the cost of electricity, which has gone up by 39 per cent, and the cost of gas, which has gone up by over 20 per cent? They want some sort of relief, and all they're seeing at the moment is a continuation in the fall in their living standards. They're starting to know and understand that Australia has seen the biggest fall in living standards of any country in the OECD. When you put these cost pressures, which show no sign of ending, on top of that, people are hurting.”
“And, if you're a landholder, it's time to make sure that you've done the preparatory work to be able to protect your property from fire, because, whether we like it or not, Christmas is coming at us at a million miles, and we've got to make sure we do what we always have to do in the country—prepare for the summer fire season. So get yourself ready, and, if you still volunteer, make sure that you've got your minimum skills so, if we get the worst, we can make sure that we're there taking action to protect our communities. I've been travelling around my electorate the last few weeks, doing listening posts and trying to hear what is of concern to my constituents. As I spoke of yesterday in this parliament, roads—the state of the roads and the number of potholes, which continues to increase—are the No. 1 concern.”
“Fortunately, in western Victoria—even though we'd had a very tough period of 12 to 18 months of very dry weather—we have seen good rain over the last two to three months. We've seen good grass growth. But what that means is, as a community, we now have to get ready for the summer. We obviously had the devastating bushfires in the Grampians last summer, so we are fully aware of the dangers of bushfires in western Victoria. We have to prepare for this coming summer. Obviously, as the Country Fire Authority knows, especially those wonderful volunteers, we have to be fire ready. So I say this to everyone who is still a volunteer member of the CFA—and the Victorian state government have done everything they can to turn people away in their hundreds. To those who still are, like I am: it's time to do your minimum skills training.”
“It's one of—if not the most—expensive forms of energy anywhere. We have already seen electricity bills go up by 39 per cent under this government, while emissions have flatlined—so you've got a double whammy policy which is failing on your cost of living and failing on doing anything about emissions. How can this Minister still be in his job—seriously? More importantly or just as important, he's now putting offshore wind farms in places where they have no right to be. As you've said, it's quite clear they shouldn't go in areas where they will have a significant impact on biodiversity. Let's hear you practice what you preach, Minister Bowen. Let's scrap this offshore wind farm once and for all and keep my constituents, especially around Warrnambool and Port Fairy, happy. It's hard to believe, but the fire season is upon us.”
“As you know, and as the Minister knows, there was no environmental study done before he placed this zone off the coast of Warrnambool and Port Fairy. They didn't do any sort of assessment of what the potential environmental impacts might be, whether those be on whales or sea birds. Instead, he just plonked this offshore wind farm zone off the coast of Port Fairy and Warrnambool and didn't do due diligence with regard to consultation with the community. As we found out through FOI requests, his department said to him, 'You need to be very careful about doing this,' for exactly the reasons that we want it stopped. The environmental consequences will be significant if he goes ahead with this, as will the economic consequences because, as we are finding out right across the globe, offshore wind is expensive.”
“The first issue I'd like to speak on today is the offshore wind farm off the coast of Warrnambool and Port Fairy. As the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, knows, my community does not want this offshore wind farm placed right next to a whale-breeding zone—a breeding zone of a whale which is on the extinction list, as a matter of fact. Minister Bowen said last week, when he was asked a question by me in the parliament, 'If an application is in the wrong place, it wouldn't be approved, whether it's renewable energy or anything else. That's how it should be.' Well, I say to Minister Bowen that now you have made it very clear in the parliament that that is your view—that is, you've said it under oath in the parliament—we look forward to you acting on it.”
“If you don't believe it, go and have a look. Once you'd had a look, you would say, 'No, that is not safe for people to have to drive on.' They wouldn't. Seriously! This motion is about trying to get real action because, if we don't—people are sick of it. They're getting their tyres blown out, they're getting their rims broken. Their shock absorbers are getting damaged. These are daily occurrences. Cost-of-living is hurting families, and this is the financial pain that they're having to deal with. Now we see the solution being put forward is, oh, we're going to make it 70 kays for you to drive, so that hurts your productivity even more. It doesn't fix the roads; all it does is say you that you're a second-class citizens. It's time you acted.”
“They want to feel safe taking their kids to school, they want to feel safe going to and from work and they want a government which can actually say, 'We get it, we care and we're going to take action.' If any of you want an example, just go for a drive along the Princes Highway. No-one will come down and do it. Minister Bowen flew down to make an announcement. I said to him, 'Drive along the road.' He just jumped back on his plane and away he went, after announcing an offshore wind farm in the wrong area. This is how out of touch you are with what is happening on the ground. So it's time you got real investment into our roads so it will start right here and now because they are deteriorating beyond belief. In Victoria, what is happening to the road infrastructure there is a national disgrace—an absolute national disgrace.”
“They're saying it in Bendigo, they're saying it in Ballarat, they're saying it in Geelong, they're saying in north-east Victoria and they're saying it in western Victoria: you are derelict in your duty to provide a road which is safe for them to be able to get their kids to school, to go to sport on the weekend and to practice their livelihoods. I'm telling you, the community anger is continuing to rise because they also see billions upon billions of dollars going to major infrastructure projects in Melbourne, like the Suburban Rail Loop, which are over-time and over-budget and which have the CFMEU involved in them—and we all know what's happening there. And what does that mean? We continue to miss out. People have had enough.”
“We're not talking about 10 or 20; they are counting hundreds upon hundreds of potholes. The sides of the roads are deteriorating, and all they get is, 'We've got it under control, but, because things have got so bad, we might have to cut the speed limit.' They have to cut the speed limit! Rather than fix the roads, you're going to start cutting the speed limit? That shows you how badly you've handled this. The deterioration since you have been in government, and since the Victorian state government has been in charge in Victoria, sadly, for far too long, has seen the investment in our roads just deteriorate over time. People are saying, enough is enough.”
“I rise to strongly support this motion. I was in Portland last week, in my electorate, and I say this to the Labor Party, both federal and state: there is growing anger about the state of the roads in regional Victoria, and they want to you to do something. I can tell you that people are going to take matters into their own hands if you don't start lifting your game, because they want action. And I can tell you why. It's because potholes are popping up everywhere. It's not just on local roads; we're talking about main, arterial roads like the Princes Highway—50 per cent, now, is funded by the federal government and 50 per cent by the state. We used to fund 80 per cent, and then it was 20 per cent, but you cut that. People are starting to calculate how many potholes there are on these roads, because the situation has got so bad.”
“To everyone that was there who had suffered early pregnancy loss and wanted to be able to, in one way or another, deal with their loss, it was a very, very special occasion.”
“Last Monday, I had the great honour of joining with my community in the south-west to put in place an early pregnancy loss memorial. This was one of those wonderful community events where the community came together to recognise a need. It was led by the Rotary club and by Janet Blackley, in particular, and I commend her for the way the that Rotary dealt with this very, very sensitive subject. I also commend Karen Johnson from the Warrnambool Cemetery trust. Those two organisations and others recognised the need in the community for people to be able to grieve early pregnancy loss. Local tradespeople put a memorial in the Tooram cemetery, where grieving parents can come and pay their respects. It's a beautiful, sculpture of a tree. You can even place a butterfly or a leaf on this memorial.”
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Unlike the minister, I can tell the House that Labor's unplanned and chaotic renewables rollout will swallow up important areas of biodiversity and prime agricultural land as part of a renewables rollout—1.7 times the size of Tasmania.”
“The arrogance of the Minister for Climate Change and Energy knows no bounds. Here is one of his own side asking him questions and he is not even here to answer them. What arrogance! What a disgrace! When we were in government, ministers turned up and had the respect to answer the opposition's questions—and to answer the questions from their own side. He won't even come here and answer the questions from his own side. One of his members has asked him a question and he is not even here to answer it. What absolute arrogance!”
“There is no reason why the lighting shouldn't be upgraded, why CCTV shouldn't be upgraded, why the whole facility shouldn't be upgraded, especially as people are commuting a lot more from Beaufort to Melbourne and from Beaufort to Ballarat. Leanne, you are on the money. You're listening to the local community and you're acting on behalf of the local community. It is an absolute honour to support you in seeking to table this petition today, because we have to use every means possible to ensure that the Victorian state Labor government are doing their job, particularly when it comes to supporting people outside Melbourne. I seek leave to table this petition from Leanne Ryan.”
“I call on the Victorian state government to make sure that they act on this petition, because Beaufort deserves exactly the same railway station facilities that every other station has on the Ararat line. The question is: why are you failing the residents of Beaufort in this way? They deserve to have a railway station which has disability services access that is up to standard. They deserve to have CCTV lights so that they can come and go from the station safely. And there are other issues as well. People want to be able to access myki services. They want to make sure there's proper lighting there. They also want to make sure, because it is an important school bus drop zone, that the school students are safe.”
“I rise today to support Leanne Ryan, who works in the local Beaufort newsagency, who has put together a petition. The petition calls on the honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the House of Representatives to call on the Victorian state government to urgently upgrade the Beaufort railway station to ensure it meets the needs of local commuters. The station requires a fit-for-purpose waiting room, a passenger information display, accessible bathroom facilities and CCTV for safety. This is the only station between Ararat and Melbourne with no CCTV. Hundreds of residents rely on this service daily for work and recreation, and it is essential that the station's amenities are up to standard. Thank you, Leanne, for what you've done and thank you for getting 422 signatures on this petition.”
“I say to the Victorian state government, 'Get on with it,' and I also say to them, 'If you're going to have a claims system, it needs to be serious, you need to be upfront with people and, if they're going to go to the time and effort to put that claim in, you've got to do better than dismissing the majority of claims with nefarious excuses and only delivering on 1.3 per cent of them.' It's a disgrace, and it's why you deserve to be voted out.”
“When the ABC put to the Victorian state government, 'What is your response to this?' they didn't have one. All they talked about was a $976 million road maintenance budget for 2025-26. Let's hope they actually put that money into fixing roads, they do it quickly, and they do it in such a way that, after the next shower of rain, we're not dealing with faulty pavements again so people aren't putting in any more claims. In that report they say they're going to look at the Princes Highway West and they're going to look at the Western Highway as part of this road maintenance blitz.”
“Over two-thirds of the hazards that form the basis of the claims across the notices—that's 73 per cent—were described as pavement or surface defects. Because they were described as pavement or surface defects, they said, 'Sorry, your claim does not resonate.' How does that make any sense? The roads deteriorate beyond belief, and people drive over them and have their cars seriously damaged, yet they come back and say, 'Sorry, we're not paying you out, because this is a pavement or surface defect.' That's what the claims are meant to be there for, when the Victorian state government haven't done their job, haven't fixed the roads properly—when you have potholes everywhere. That's what it's there for, yet they didn't. For 69 per cent of claims VicRoads said it was not liable to pay out a compensation claim at all.”
“That's people who have seen rims damaged or broken, tyres torn up or even worse damage to their cars who have taken the effort to say, 'This was not my fault; this was your fault, VicRoads, Victorian state government, and I want to lodge a claim so I can get some compensation for that.' Guess how many resulted in a settlement? Twenty-three—1,709 claims went in, and 23 resulted in a settlement. If you want to hear that in percentage figures, that's 1.3 per cent. What a miserable, miserable government, seriously. People damaged their cars, their vehicles, their rims and their tyres because you will not fix the roads. You say to them, 'If damage is done, put in for a claim.' They go to that effort, and what you do is settle 1.3 per cent. No wonder Victorians have had enough of this Victorian state Labor government.”
“The ABC had a very interesting article online last Friday. What they did was put in an FOI request to the Victorian state government about how many claims had been lodged with the department of transport by those people who'd driven through potholes or across rough edges of roads or through parts where the pavement has just deteriorated beyond belief and how many of those claims had actually resulted in settlement. You know the Victorian state government talks a lot about transparency and how they are very keen to make sure those people who might be impacted by the deteriorating roads can put in these claims. Yet thanks to the ABC last Friday what we found out was 1,709 claims had been put in. These were notices lodged.”
“Of course I was very keen for the PM to withdraw that. I don't know whether he did or not because my C hariots of Fire remark led to the Speaker removing me from the chamber. But I hope the PM will withdraw and I hope the PM will begin to listen to the people of western Victoria”
“I got up and took a point of order, as you do, and said, 'PM, get back to the question and tell us why you were run out of town.' He then went on and blamed everyone else. I interjected—and I must admit it was an interjection that the Speaker looked upon and probably frowned at a little bit—and I said quite loudly that it reminded me a little bit of a scene out of Chariots of Fire , referring to that one where they run along the beach pretty quickly, That was what I was reminded of by the PM scooting out of Ballarat with the tractors following him. The PM must have had a little bit of a glass jaw. The Treasurer seemed to laugh, and every behind me laughed, but the PM just turned around and, out of the blue, said, 'You're a coward.' I just thought, gosh, we're having a little bit of lightheartedness. It's theatre. The PM just went bang.”
“They go out and keep the community safe, and here's the Victorian state Labor government taxing them for doing that. I thought that, if he took those talking points along to Ballarat, he might be ready for what he might get confronted with. The PM isn't really listening at the moment, so what happened? He went to Ballarat, he didn't have his proper talking points with them and he got run out of town. There were five trucks and tractors. They all queued up and they ran him out of town. We asked the PM about it today in question time—just a simple question. 'PM, why were you run out of town by tractors?' He couldn't answer. As a matter of fact, he tried to talk about everything else but the question we asked him.”
“Last Thursday, I tried to do the Prime Minister a favour. He was off to Ballarat for the regional summit, and I suggested he needed to take some talking points with him. He needed talking points on road funding because they aren't investing in western Victorian roads like they should be. I said that he would need to think about social licence when it comes to transmission lines that they are trying to put through farms; social license about windfarms, which had just been imposed on local communities; and coming with some sort of drought funding package because he's delivered nothing for our drought-stricken farmers in western Victoria and in South Australia. He also would need to talk to the Premier about the fire services levy, which is a tax that has been imposed on volunteers who fight fires.”
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Under the Albanese Labor government, electricity prices have exploded by 39 per cent, including a 13 per cent rise over the past 12 months alone. Can the minister explain to the House how a 39 per cent increase in electricity prices can result in a $275 reduction, as you promised?”
“We've got the infrastructure minister here. When he gets past Buangor, he'll be able to see that the duplication stops for no good reason. When are you going to finish it? We could talk about social licence for transmission lines and renewable energy targets. When are you going to do something around social licence? Then, of course, there is the Victorian state government's fire services tax. Will the Prime Minister say to the Premier, 'Scrap the tax.' The worst thing you can do to volunteers in the community is to tax them for keeping the communities safe. At the same time, he could talk about unrealised capital gains and what's that going to go to farmers, and I could go on and on and on because there is—”
“The Prime Minister's going to be going to the Bush Summit in Ballarat on Friday. Just so I can help him with his talking points, I say to his advisors, 'Listen up, these are the issues that the people in my electorate will want to discuss with the Prime Minister.' They're actually going to go to Ballarat and deliver the message because the Prime Minister won't go down the highway to see them. They'll want to talk drought and what is this government doing to help them at this time of drought. Are they going to deliver the $30 million for the East Grampians Rural Pipeline? We need that money. The state government, who are broke, have committed to it. When is the federal government going to stump up? He could drive down the Western Highway and see the importance of road funding and how we need much more road funding.”
“Nothing would give me greater joy than to see you representing our country at those Olympics. To everyone who is working tirelessly hard and dedicating themselves to try and be part of our team for the Brisbane Olympics: good luck. Representing your country at a home Olympics seems, to me, an outsider but a sport lover, like the greatest thing that you could ever achieve. We all saw that with Cathy Freeman in the Sydney Olympics. We hope that there are more Cathy Freemans when it comes to the Brisbane Olympics. To all of those—and we shouldn't forget this—who have the huge task of making sure that the Brisbane Olympics are the greatest Olympics of all time, because that is the ideal—”
“We also have to understand that, although the Olympic ideals are ideals that we would all love to see time and time again, especially when the Olympics take place, sadly there will be governments who will use the Olympics for political purposes. We cannot be blind to that. I turn my attention, like the five-time Olympian before me did, to what's coming. We can all unite, rightly, with the two venues ahead of us. Los Angeles is coming up. And, to all those young Australians who are trying to qualify, who are trying to represent their country at the Los Angeles Olympics: I wish you all the best. There are young people in my electorate who are striving to represent our nation in Los Angeles and then in Brisbane. I hope your dreams and your desires come to fulfilment.”
“We should treat the athletes who went and achieved the goal of being an Olympian with the respect they deserve. For those who didn't go, we should also acknowledge and respect the principles under which they took those decisions. For those who had to take those decisions, who had the geostrategic complexities of those times as part of the considerations that they took, those Olympic sporting bodies who said yes or no—I say again there were Olympians who sat on those bodies—we need to acknowledge and understand the difficult decisions they had to take. We've got to acknowledge and understand that, even though we would like these decisions to operate in a vacuum, that is never going to be the case. Human rights abuses, sadly, continue today, like they took place in 1979 and 1880.”
“Even though we can stand here today and say, 'This should never occur again,' I think we also have to understand the conflict there could be between us saying those words and the actual reality, because we could be faced with a situation like this again. I don't think any of us should underestimate that that could take place, because the sad reality is that trying to divorce life from sport and sport from life is nigh on impossible. We see that on a regular occurrence, even today. So what we have to do is make sure that we know and understand that what we always have to do is live with the ideal that we should always respect people, no matter the circumstances of the decisions that they've undertaken, especially when, ultimately, they're decisions of conscience.”
“They were taken because they thought at the time that they were doing the right thing. I think it was important yesterday that we were able to acknowledge those who went and the treatment that they got, especially on their return, because no Australian deserves to be treated without respect. The fact that we were able to acknowledge that yesterday was incredibly important. It's also important, though, to recognise those who took the principled position not to attend, and some were of a very young age. Any who were forced to take a principled position, though—that doesn't sit easily with us. So what we have to do is make sure that we understand the complexity with which these decisions were taken.”
“It was under that cloud that very difficult decisions were taken as to whether our athletes, and also the athletes of many other countries, should go to the Moscow Olympics, because people had no doubt—no doubt whatsoever—that the Soviets would use the Olympics for their political purposes. If the Soviets weren't going to use the Olympics for their political purposes, you can understand that we would have had very different circumstances. But everything the Soviet Union did at that time was all about building their empire and trying to take liberties and freedoms away from countries right across the world. That's why difficult decisions had to be taken. Those difficult decisions, which were taken by sporting organisations in this country and in other countries across the world, were taken by former Olympians.”
“I have the unenviable task of following two Olympians! I will try and do that the best justice that I can. I'd also like to just bring a little bit of realism to the debate as well because, while ideally we would love sport to take place in a vacuum outside of the political landscape around it, sadly that's never going to be the case. What we saw in 1979 in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was an event which led to the deaths of what is estimated to have been between one million and three million people. We saw an event which was very much an indication that the Cold War was still at its height and that the Soviets were still looking to expand their empire and to do everything they could to take the liberties, freedoms and democratic principles that we hold so dear away from people.”