Lisa Chesters
Bendigo · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“As I said, they are unique and quite often can fall through the cracks of the very large organisation that is known as the CFA, but in my meeting with them I was impressed by their dedication to what they do. They get together. They train.”
“I'd also like to pay tribute and honour to the late Don Drummond. Don and I first met many, many years ago, before I was the federal member for Bendigo, back when Woodend was in the Bendigo electorate. Don passed away recently. Even though Woodend hasn't been in Bendigo for a long time, he had kept in touch.”
“I rise to give a special shout-out to Oscar 1 CFA. The Oscar 1 CFA is quite a unique CFA volunteer unit in Bendigo. Its focus is on mine rescue. Like many old mining regions, Bendigo is littered with empty mine shafts. When people start to renovate, one may open up out in the Whipstick Forest or many of our other forests.”
“Before it was a thing in Labor, he always started branch meetings with a welcome to country and a value statement—the commitment to the burning light, as he said. Someone of great intellect and always a great ear, he was someone who was a true believer. Vale, Don. You will be missed.”
“On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, I present the committee's R eport 233 : agreement on the social security between Australia and the Oriental Public of Uruguay . Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e). I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.”
“And while we'd all been to the War Memorial prior to that particular event, during that visit we heard why they wanted to build purpose built galleries. They wanted to recognise the contribution of our peacekeepers, to help tell the story of our soldiers and our ADF personnel who were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.”
The complete record
Every one of 394 lines we hold for Lisa Chesters, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 6 of 8.
“It's much better than what those opposite proposed, which is allowing first home buyers to use their super, a policy that would have hurt people later on in life, hurt generations and not actually helped people into homeownership any sooner. Our proposal of lowering it to five per cent means that more first home buyers will get into homes sooner. It's great for builders in the regions because they can get on with building the houses that we need. It's great for workers moving to the regions because they'll be able to buy their homes, settle down and start to form roots. This is great policy being announced by our government.”
“First home buyers around the country will be relieved to learn today that we are bringing forward our commitment to our five per cent deposit scheme. That's all that's required for a deposit for a new home. We're bringing it forward to 1 October so that all first home buyers in our country will now qualify for the scheme and only need a five per cent deposit for their first home opportunity. In my electorate that means that thousands of first home buyers will be able to take that next step to buy their first home. Despite having good incomes and good jobs, they've been priced out. Being able to achieve the 20 per cent, they tell me, could take decades, if not longer. This is a sensible reform that we've brought forward, lowering the deposit and guaranteeing five per cent.”
“This is a Bendigo icon, and yesterday many people took to social media to share their family stories and connection to Toi Shan. For my own family, this is our Chinese restaurant, and we are now at a loss to think what will be our next family restaurant. Workers shared their stories about how they go down with the billy to get their dim sims and their treat for the week. Families shared their stories about celebrating 90th and 100th birthdays there. It was an institution. Good luck with your retirement, Sue and Peter. You will be missed. Toi Shan will be missed.”
“I rise to share with the House the sad news that the Toi Shan Chinese restaurant in my electorate of Bendigo has closed its doors, yesterday being its last day. Why does that matter? Because it is the oldest Chinese restaurant in Australia. It goes back to the early days of the gold rush, when it was called On Loong on Bridge Street. For the last 25 years Toi Shan was owned and operated by Sue and Peter Chee, who bought the business from the Chan family and ran it as most small businesses do. I can remember meeting the many children that they had working there, and, as somebody who grew up in a small-business family, I recall those moments where you help with the cash register, you help with the cooking and you help your parents run the business.”
“Now is the time to get on with delivering the many commitments that we made during the election—funding for skate parks, funding for Bendigo heritage attractions, funding for changerooms for women so that they can change in a safe and inclusive space, funding for upgrades to the North Bendigo Recreation Reserve, funding for reimagining and restoring the Bendigo Creek, funding to deliver a veterans' hub for veterans and families in the Bendigo and district area and funding for a Bendigo headspace Plus. These are some of the many commitments that Labor and I made to the people of Bendigo.”
“My children are now at an age where they really understand elections, and I'd like to thank them for the love and support that they showed me during that period—picking me up after early voting and letting me know that, if they could vote, they'd vote for me. My children, my family and my extended family's support was truly remarkable. I'd also like to thank the amazing people of Bendigo. Despite our diversity and the rebuilding that we are now doing, I am so proud to represent you in this place. Thank you for instilling your trust in me again to continue as the federal member for Bendigo. It is an honour and a privilege, which I know all members stand in this place and say, but we genuinely mean it.”
“Jacinta Allan, Maree Edwards and Mary-Anne Thomas—and my other federal Labor colleagues like Senator Jess Walsh; the member sitting at the front desk, Minister Giles; and the other fantastic Victorian Labor MPs that stood there with us. You really know that you are in good company when you are in the fight of your political life and your friends come and rally around you. I'd like to thank my amazing team. We knew it was going to be tight and close, and, after what was the most gruelling prepoll and election day, the party was packed up early. They went to bed, got up and went into quite possibly one of the longest ballot counts that we've had in Bendigo since John Brumby's time as the federal member. I'd also like to thank my amazing family—Matt, Daisy and Charlie.”
“It may happen to one of your own one day, and you would be standing in this place demanding that they be respected in the same way that I am doing now. I got asked during the election, 'What will you do?' I said, 'You always have to call out bad behaviour, not necessarily for yourself but for the next woman or the next candidate.' I'd like to take a moment to thank the amazing volunteers that stood with me during that campaign. We have a fantastic team of rank-and-file members in Bendigo, as well as volunteers, the people who spend hours on prepoll despite the difficult conditions. Despite being stood over, pushed and provoked, they did not bite. They stood their ground, held their heads high and did the job. I'd like to acknowledge the amazing support that I had from my state colleagues—the Hon.”
“But the good news is that we held on despite the negativity, nastiness, misinformation and disinformation. My amazing team of volunteers, the local state MPs and my office held on to the seat. At the conclusion of counting I was 2,983 votes ahead of my nearest challenger, securing my fifth term in this place and equalling that of my predecessor. I'm proud to stand here and say that in the federal seat of Bendigo we've had 28 years of Labor, and counting. In the future, we hope for elections that are free and fair, honest and respectful. It's the very least that all of us can ask. We want there to be robust debate, but it should be respectful. I ask those opposite who invaded our town during this election to check their language and check their behaviour.”
“I am very pleased to be able to stand to continue my remarks from a few nights ago. As I said in the first part of my speech, the Bendigo electorate election was close. It was tough, brutal and nasty. Over $2 million, it's estimated, was spent by my opponents to try and buy the seat of Bendigo. They flooded the town with outsiders. During the campaign I was referred to as a dog by somebody who wanted to be the deputy prime minister. That sent shockwaves through people in my community, because they didn't believe that a member of parliament could refer to another member of parliament that way in 2025. I mention that just to demonstrate to other members that, whilst they were in their own battles, this was the nature of the battle in Bendigo.”
“The other thing that our local governments do is partner with us to deliver funding, and I have to say that, during the last term of our government, the councils in my electorate received more funding in that one term than they did in the entire previous nine years of the coalition. Mount Alexander shire received over $12 million for the redevelopment of one of their precincts. Local governments received funding to restore waterways and from Roads to Recovery and to build vital community infrastructure projects and female change rooms, just to name a few examples. Do not believe the rhetoric and the nonsense of those opposite, because that's all it is.”
“Another shire of mine, the Mount Alexander shire, has more bridges than any other shire in the state of Victoria, and they are constantly looking for ways to upgrade and update their bridges. I was very proud to join them last year and stand with them when they allocated some of their federal funding to fixing one of these many bridges, connecting the community so that they didn't have to literally drive through old McDonald's farm to get to town. These are the daily challenges that local governments face. Quite often in regional areas, local government is the largest employer. They have the good, secure jobs that support so many in their communities. Not only are they the deliverers of important services but they also have the good jobs.”
“In my opinion, the financial assistance grants needs to be reprioritised and focused on regional councils, where they have smaller rate bases, larger geographical areas and challenges that some of the metro partners do not have. In our regions, local governments are quite often responsible for delivering aged-care services, like in my shire of Mount Alexander, or early childhood education services, like in the city of Bendigo. And, whilst they are not the lone providers of early childhood education services, they do provide a benchmark—good-quality early childhood education—that the for-profit sector is forced to compete with, and they have a waitlist. I would like to see them expand their early childhood education offerings, and maybe, if we can get the financial assistance grants correct, they can.”
“Its objectives are about financial assistance grants, and let's be blunt—there are some council areas in Australia who do not need financial assistance. The City of Melbourne comes to mind, as well as a number of other inner-city councils that can make more money through parking metres in an hour than what some of our shires in Australia can make collecting rates. This is why we need to review how the financial assistance grants are rolled out, and it needs to be done urgently. So I say to the member for Mallee: be bolder, be a bit stronger, stand up a bit more for your regional councils and argue for what should be in that formula, because right now we have a local government association who are just saying 'increase' but are not suggesting where that extra funding should go.”
“They are struggling to meet the cost of delivering the services that our community requires, and that struggle, with regard to financial assistance grants, goes all the way back to former prime minister Tony Abbott and what he did to financial assistance grants in his disastrous budget of 2014. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey, in their first budget, froze financial assistance grant indexation. That compounding impact is why we're in the mess we are today when it comes to financial assistance grants. Whilst I appreciate the energy in which the Australian Council of Local Government have just said to us, 'Lift them back to one per cent'— I appreciate that, but I say to the Local Government Association that it cannot just be a straight blanket increase to the current formula. The current formula is not achieving its objectives.”
“I rise to speak in relation to this motion, and I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed that the member for Mallee was not a little bit stronger in her motion which calls for reviews and 'looking at'. Where's the demand? Where's the demand to do more for regional councils? As a member who represents a regional electorate—and I have five local government areas. I've got the City of Greater Bendigo and the whole of the Mount Alexander Shire Council. I've got a little bit of Mitchell, a little bit of Campaspe and a little bit of the Macedon Ranges. What these regional shires all have in common is that they are struggling.”
“We need to continue to upgrade and update water infrastructure. I say that boldly and challenge those opposite: do not derail any efforts made to build pipelines to install new or improve existing waterways. Some of our water infrastructure in the Bendigo electorate goes back to the gold rush. It is out of date. We need to update and improve our water systems to ensure that we are supporting all our communities, including our farmers.”
“I rise to acknowledge the hardship and the efforts that have gone into our region to support our farmers in time of drought. Whilst we welcome the rain that we have received over the last week, it is still not enough to fill the necessary dams and water storages in our region. Unfortunately, as we stand here today, this drought has come on quicker, it has dried a lot quicker and inflows have been much lower than predicted. If we do not get substantial rain and over this winter period, it is highly likely that parts of my electorate will be placed on water restrictions—the first since the millennium drought back in 2010. This is devastating news for many in our electorate. Whilst we hope to get rain, there is more that we can be doing here in this place to support not just the farmers but also these communities at risk and in need.”
“They brought calm to an otherwise quite toxic and hostile environment. When they walk through our community in Bendigo, they do exude this calmness. In times of division, the monks and the nuns remind all of us of the Dalai Lama's universal commitment to compassion and peace. Happy birthday, Dalai Lama.”
“I rise to acknowledge the Dalai Lama's 90th birthday and the celebration and service that was held in my own electorate. I thank the wonderful Atisha Buddhist Centre for inviting me to be involved in this celebration. I was honoured to join the celebration of the 90th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Sunday 6 July at the wonderful Atisha Buddhist Centre that is at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in my electorate. Although I am not Buddhist, many in my community are, and I deeply respect their commitment, their involvement and the commitment they have to universal values that he upholds. He's an enduring symbol of the love, compassion and patience—things that many subscribe to—of his faith. I recall the kindness of many of the Buddhists in my community at early voting.”
“It is wrong that these students are charged more for their fees than the cost of delivery, and I look forward to working with the minister and our government to see that injustice changed. Everyone should have the opportunity to go to university and choose to study what they like, regardless of where they're from and the postcode that they have.”
“I'd also like to acknowledge some of the other things that we have done as a result of a recommendation of the Universities Accord. Fixing HELP debt indexation was a key recommendation. I've mentioned the Commonwealth prac payment, starting with nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students. There is another area that we are keen to look at. We've introduced fee-free uni-ready places, another pathway into university, and more student study hubs. But I acknowledge that there is still more work to be done, and I have said publicly as well as to the minister that the work of implementing the recommendations of the accord will not be finished until we've done more about the Jobs-ready Graduates scheme, particularly in relation to arts and humanities students.”
“In my own electorate I met nursing students—early school leavers who have taken the opportunity to go back to TAFE to start studying nursing, and, to their credit, they were doing well. Some of them are now qualifying for another part of the Universities Accord package, the Commonwealth prac payment, when they take their first prac payment later this year. These students have a goal. They are keen to go on to midwifery and nursing at university at La Trobe's Bendigo campus. From early school leavers to being enrolled in free TAFE and transitioning to university, these amazing women are on the path to becoming midwives and nurses, a pathway not possible if not for our Labor government. These are the stories that are seeing real change.”
“This cut isn't just for people who incurred a debt through university, through the HECS—now HELP—scheme but also for people who incurred a debt prior to free TAFE through the student loans that were offered in vocational education and training. It is a welcome measure, and much of the reason we saw a massive shift towards Labor in many of the seats that we now hold. Apart from that, I'd also like to talk about TAFE for a moment. One of the other key recommendations of the University Accord was to improve the transition from the vocational education sector to the tertiary university sector. We have started to implement some of those reforms. There should be a clearer transition pathway, with recognition of credit and work that has been achieved through VET and through TAFE into higher education.”
“There was a period under the Howard government and, subsequently, the previous coalition government, where student debts did spiral out of control. They were unfair. High inflation did send personal student debt skyrocketing, and many people my age—people in their 30s and 40s, whose higher education experience was well in the rearview mirror—were seeing their debts go up by more in the past few years than what the original debt was to begin with. That prompted Labor to act, to say, 'We need to do something to restore the fairness.' Hence, we brought forward our commitment at the last election to cut all student debt by 20 per cent. For my electorate, an electorate in regional Victoria, that's about 17,000 people who will have their student debt cut, and three million Australians.”
“I acknowledge the spirit in which this motion was brought before the parliament. For many years I've been discussing university student debt and the need to be doing something more in this space, so I acknowledge the spirit which has brought the debate to us. I also acknowledge it is a time when this parliament is also debating one of the most significant reforms to have happened in relation to student debt for decades—that is in relation to the bill introduced into the House in the last sitting to cut all student debts by 20 per cent. The reason I raise that is it was part of the recommendation in the University Accord, which did talk about the need to have a fairer indexation system. It's a demonstration of how our government went further, by cutting all student debt by 20 per cent.”
“The election commitments that were made by me for Bendigo included funding for skate parks, funding for Bendigo heritage attractions, funding for change rooms at the Truscott Reserve pavilion and North Bendigo Recreation Reserve, reimagining the Bendigo Creek and funding to develop the veterans and families hub in Bendigo. These are some of the election commitments that I made. I'll continue my remarks at a later stage.”
“It is an unusual seat that sometimes goes against the national grain, but I'm proud to say that we've held on, and Labor has now held the seat continuously for 28 years—and I hope for many more in the future. The reason why I'm confident that Labor will continue to do well in seats like Bendigo is the agenda of our government. If I am being wrapped up, I will continue my remarks into what we will do in this term and into the future and how we'll continue to work hard for the people of Bendigo. Commitments on bulk-billing, cheaper medicines, batteries, the 20 per cent reduction in student debt, the freezing of the beer excise—they are all measures introduced by this government and committed to in the election not just for the people of Bendigo but for the region.”
“To all the other areas where we did have swings against Labor, I will still be your strong voice in this parliament, as I have been for the past five terms. It is the role. To the new areas of Rochester, now in my electorate, welcome to being represented by a Labor member. I am the first Labor member to represent your area in well over 50 years, and I am here to be your voice in this parliament. By winning my fifth term, I will have equalled my predecessor in becoming the longest-serving MP in this place at the end of this term. To win five terms is no small feat when our parliament has only been here for 48 terms. I acknowledge, Deputy Speaker Georganas, that I've still got a long way to go to meet your standard as well as others in this place, but in a seat like Bendigo it is an achievement.”
“We have Rochester in the north and Tylden in the south. It is a huge part of central Victoria. It is now considered rural and regional, when you get your map from the Pharmacy Guild. We're no longer in the outer part of Melbourne; we're now in the regional part of Melbourne. We're that little red part of Victoria. I want to acknowledge the communities that stuck with Labor. In the shire of Mount Alexander, the two-party preferred vote for Labor was up over 80 per cent. I acknowledge that and I want to say thank you. For some of the stronger working-class areas in Bendigo, like Long Gully central, parts of California Gully and Kangaroo Flat, I'll continue to stand with you and campaign for you. You understand the value and the importance of a Labor government.”
“I did say that I didn't think it was my place to call for a summit. How could I consciously pull police officers off the ground and away from their jobs into a summit when they have a job to do keeping people in my community safe? At the time, I thought that was quite reasonable, but it was weaponised. It was turned into a horrible video that was pushed out onto social media on the eve of the election. There were images of people with machetes. They were not from Bendigo. They had no place in that social media video, but they were put in my electorate. It was a nasty campaign, and, at the conclusion of the counting, I am pleased to say that I held on. The margin was 2,983 votes. It is an incredibly diverse electorate. It is something that I think is the reason why I'm still here today.”
“When doorknocking I heard that it is my fault that crime has spiked—not true. Crime is an issue. Everybody has a responsibility. If you are a victim of a crime, you should call the police immediately. You should be given the support that you require. In the lead-up to the federal election there was a very nasty, horrific incident at my local shopping centre. It shocked all of us; it shocked me. I quite often go to the marketplace with my kids after school. To think it became the scene of a horrific crime is unsettling. In words that followed that particular event, I strongly encouraged everybody, via the local media, if they witnessed this event, to talk to the police. I strongly encouraged everybody after this event, if they are the victim of a crime, to call the police. Victorian police are responsible.”
“But now that they've all left, we're left to rebuild our town. We have to try and help rebuild the bridges, to help rebuild confidence and to dispel a lot of the misinformation and disinformation that was pushed out into my community via social media and local media, through their doorknocking campaign and through their whispering campaign. Here are a few of the examples of the misinformation that I had to encounter: parliaments elected after 2004 do not get the parliamentary pension. A few people said to me: 'I thought I was doing you a favour voting against you. You'll get the pension.' That's what I got told. That level of misinformation doesn't do anybody any good. It's unfair and it's not true. When doorknocking in my electorate, I heard things like, 'You haven't delivered anything'—not true.”
“Most candidates have one person handing out how-to-vote cards. Sometimes, at an early voting centre, it might be the candidate and two other volunteers to make sure you cover all the entrances, but are 20 really necessary? There were 20 people all there, standing in front of people, agitating people, engaging people in a way that is not free or fair. It starts to ask the question: have we crossed the line between what is free and fair? That's not to mention the waste involved in all the advertising, the failure to follow direction that was given by the AEC, the signs that weren't authorised properly and the signs that, in many cases, are still up today and haven't been taken down. We know the people who put those signs up were not local. They probably won't come back to Bendigo. They probably just came for the election.”
“Whilst we didn't have the invasion of blue shirts, we had the invasion of yellow shirts. People who were not from Bendigo came and swarmed every pre-poll station and every polling station, intimidating voters. They were booing voters who only took a Labor how-to-vote card. Never in my life have I seen another side of politics boo a voter for walking through with only one how-to-vote card! It begs the question: when do we cross the line between free and fair elections? Where is that line? I'd say that some of the things that we saw in Bendigo did cross that line. To this day, I'm still having people raise with me their voting experience. The AEC had to have a welfare officer at the door to support people when they came through because of the level of intimidation that they experienced.”
“They just continued to push out the same mistruths over and over again, trying to convince people that I was not standing up for my electorate. It wasn't just the misinformation about projects—and I have to say I'm disappointed that, after the result, we are still here today in this place, and the member for Gippsland is still trying to push out this myth! He wasn't the only one that came into my electorate to try and buy the seat of Bendigo. There were so many frequent visitors from the National Party that I almost thought they might need an AEC form to enrol in the electorate of Bendigo. They spent so many nights in Bendigo before and during the election period. Whilst I wouldn't have welcomed their enrolment—because I'm sure they weren't putting a one next to my name—that just demonstrates the frequency of their visits.”
“In fact, there was $50 million—a doubling of the Roads to Recovery funding to the councils in my local area over a five-year period. This includes $30 million to the City of Greater Bendigo alone. There's funding for roads through the Road Safety Program and funding for roads through the Black Spots Program. There's $4.3 million for a specialist dementia care unit and $3 million, through the Active Transport Fund, for the shire of Mount Alexander to link the growth corridor to the city centre. This is just a sample of the funding that was delivered to my electorate alone in the last three years of government, dispelling the repeated mistruths of those opposite every time they came to town. They didn't care about the truth. They weren't honourable. They didn't stand up and admit when they had made a mistake.”
“We delivered $800,000 for Golden Dragon Museum and $100,000 for Golden Dragon Museum; $5 million for the Bendigo Airport upgrade; $143 million for runway upgrades in Kyneton—critical for emergency services; over $3 million in Bushmaster vehicle contracts; $2 million in local sporting grants for upgrades, including for many female-friendly change rooms to accommodate participants; and HAFF projects, worth millions of dollars, to deliver much needed social and community housing to our area. Through the Growing Regions Program, funding was delivered for Heathcote, for the Heathcote town precinct. There was funding for Bendigo Foodshare and $1.2 million for Forest Creek in Castlemaine, to restore this much loved waterway through the urban rivers program. There has been significant funding through Roads to Recovery.”
“One of the common things that those opposite did, when they came to my electorate, was stand up and repeat a mistruth over and over again that, in my time of being a federal member for Bendigo, particularly in the last three years—the first term of the Albanese Labor government—I had delivered nothing. This is wrong. I will start with a bit of a list of what we did deliver in the last term of government, before I get on to what we plan to deliver in this term. Through the rPPP, $12 million for the Mount Alexander Shire Council and $1.2 for Bendigo TAFE.”
“The Bendigo election was a brutal contest. There's no other way to put it. My opponents spent well over $2 million trying to buy the seat of Bendigo and flooded the town with outsiders. It started at Easter. Easter used to be quite sacred in Bendigo. People enjoyed it. They got involved in the festival. They participated in the parade. It used to be free of politics, but not this year. Swarms of yellow shirts swamped people, got in their way and pushed aggressively in people's faces, and, unfortunately, it was effective. Divisions within our community were blown up. Things were fractured. Families were divided, communities were divided, sporting clubs were divided. A lot of it was based upon mis- and disinformation, and a lot of it on disrespect.”
“There was one word in her speech that I remember, that did not reflect the election in Bendigo, and that was the word kindness. During elections, it is quite often that people forget that word. They forget the word respect, they forget the word kindness, and it can become a bit of a game. But this went beyond that, and we've heard that from many people. The nastiness in this election, I have never seen in my entire life—and I grew up in Queensland. I'm a proud Victorian today, but I can remember campaigning during the Tampa years, and I can remember campaigning when we saw our country take a very different turn. But that was nothing compared to the nastiness and the division that occurred in this election—the way in which those opposite played out the culture wars in many electorates including in my own.”
“I'm proud to speak to the address that was given by the Governor-General. It's the second address by a woman who is the Governor-General, in my time being in this place, meaning that this is my fifth election. When I was first elected, in 2013, the Governor-General was Dame Quentin Bryce. So it was quite fitting, I feel, that on this occasion my daughter, Daisy, and my son, Charlie, were here for the opening of this parliament and got to meet the second woman to be Governor-General of Australia and to hear the address. There's a difference, though, between the first and the second addresses that were given by the Governors-General. It was wonderful to be able to hear the words from the Governor-General, speaking about the kind of government we are going to be, what our priorities are and what the purpose of this place is.”
“He had the honour to be often asked to be a guest chef. He cooked for prime ministers, Victorian premiers, the Duke of Edinburgh and me. I was pleased to be able to join him and his lovely wife, with my partner, at his home. He was a lovable larrikin, a gentleman and an artist. He will be remembered by all those who loved him in our community and society and by his wife, Jane, and their two children. Vale, Peter Russell-Clarke.”
“I rise to acknowledge a great Australian and a constituent of mine, Peter Russell-Clarke. Vale, Peter Russell-Clarke. A pioneer of Australian television, a chef, an artist, an author—Peter passed away on 4 July 2025. He was born in Ballarat in 1935 and began his career at the age of 14 as a junior artist for an advertising agency. He worked for popular magazines like New Idea and Wom a n's Day but gained national fame in the eighties when he hosted the ABC cooking show Come and Get It. I remember it as a child, as I'm sure many people in this place do. It aired from 1983 to 1992. He was known for his signature greeting of 'G'day'. He became a much-loved Australian figure for many of Australia's households. Over a six-decade career, he authored at least 35 cookbooks and worked with major food organisations.”
“The Speaker has received a message from the Senate informing the House that it concurs with the resolutions conveyed by messages Nos 1 to 16 of the House, relating to the appointment of certain joint committees and to the powers and proceedings of certain other joint committees, and informing the House of the appointment of senators to certain joint committees. As the list of appointments is a lengthy one, I do not propose to read the list to the House. Details will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings .”
“Labor understands that we need to be doing more to help households with the cost of living. It is good for students; it is good for families; it is good for communities. We have heard from so many members on this side of the chamber of how this will make a real difference to household budgets. We want people to go to university. We do acknowledge that they have a contribution to pay, but it should be a fair contribution. That is the difference between our side of politics and those opposite.”
“Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It is so good to get the call. This is my first speech in the 48th Parliament, and I have to confess there was a little moment on 2 May that I thought that my last speech of the 47th Parliament about the Australia-Portugal tax treaty, whilst important, might be my last contribution to this parliament. But the good news is, because of our commitments in the election, Bendigo was held by Labor. Our commitment to 20 per cent reduction in student debt is one of the things that helped deliver seats like Bendigo for Labor. Over 17,000 people in my electorate alone will benefit from this change. Three million Australians will benefit from this cut. Not only is it good for students; it is delivering real cost-of-living relief for three million Australians. That is because, on our side of politics, Labor listens.”
“Thank you also to all the committee members for their diligence and hard work on a constantly busy committee, particularly the former chair, the member for Fremantle; and the deputy chair, the member for Herbert. And finally I would like to thank the secretariat for their hard work over this term of parliament. It is a very busy committee, and we would not have been as successful without their hard work. On behalf of the committee, I commend this report to the House.”
“This minor treaty action updates appendix 3 of the convention to remove six previously listed species of turtle native to China. The committee also resolved that binding treaty action be taken for all these minor treaties. As this is likely to be the final report of the committee in this parliament, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has been involved in inquiries and making submissions throughout the course of the past few years. Your contributions have been extremely valuable and an important part of the process of examining and scrutinising treaties. Treaties are a critical part of our engagement with other nations and for Australia's participation in the international community.”
“Australia's acceptance of the amendments is consistent with our longstanding support for the protection of the marine environment and active support of the International Maritime Organization. Two of the minor treaty actions in this report relate to the Agreement Establishing the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 1990 and the Articles of Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 1945. And the final minor treaty action in this report amends the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES. CITES is an international agreement that aims to ensure that the international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.”