Rebekha Sharkie
Mayo · Centre Alliance · Australia
“People often say to me, 'What's the greatest thing that you love about your job?' I would say—what I love the most is actually never in the media—that what I love the most is when my team and I can help somebody with their aged care issue or their NDIS package or a Centrelink problem.”
“For all of us, and certainly for me, that is my team members, and some of them have been with me for many, many, many years. Whether they've been with me for a short time or a long time, I've got to say that every single member of my team has been fantastic. They really have. I love the team of people I work with.”
“These have all been incredibly worthwhile and important projects that our whole community has backed in together. One that we've all really loved and enjoyed being on is the Amy Gillett Bikeway. That's now been extended from Mount Torrens to Birdwood.”
“Ten years ago today, the community of Mayo put their trust in me to represent them. I'd particularly like to acknowledge former senator Nick Xenophon. Nick Xenophon put his trust in me to represent his party.”
“I mustn't forget Kangaroo Island and upgrades to Hog Bay Road which have improved safety. We've had such enormous population growth, but there is so much more to do. There's always so much to do. When I look at health, we have emergency departments that have been upgraded at Victor Harbor and a new emergency department in Mount Barker.”
“He is constantly asked by children and teachers if his skin hurts, if the eczema is getting worse and, by some children, 'What's wrong with you?' There are thousands of children just like Angus in Australia whose severe eczema will cause some long-term physical and emotional harm if they cannot access new treatments.”
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“I rise to support the member for Calare's motion. I also acknowledge many of the comments made by the member for Macarthur. No, there are no easy fixes, but there are fixes. There are ways that we can address this. In my electorate, access to health services is one of the top three most pressing issues. We know that there is a $6.55 billion shortfall in regional and rural health spend. That means that around $848 per person is the difference between what is spent on a person living in metropolitan Australia and what is spent on a person living in rural Australia, and we most certainly feel it in the regions. While many say, 'Yes, these are problems we've had for several years,' the changes to distribution priority areas, or DPAs, have made it infinitely worse.”
“Accordingly, I call on the government to consider underwriting premiums as a last resort for postcodes that are deemed uninsurable or experiencing insurance premium increases greater than 50 per cent, because no Australian household or business should be at risk of losing everything they own. We must act decisively and with urgency.”
“I call on the government to go beyond consideration and establish an inquiry into the insurance sector to determine if fair pricing mechanisms are setting premiums. If insurance companies are denying cover or pricing people out of the market due to the purported increases in fires and floods, surely they must be made accountable for those decisions. Policy risk must be evidence based, and insurers should be required to demonstrate it. Lastly, as I mentioned, what we are experiencing is market failure. If insurance companies are going to deny insurance coverage, the government must consider options.”
“In the case of businesses, many are simply choosing to close, as they can neither afford the hike in insurance costs nor take the risk of operating without the correct level of cover. Of even greater concern is that many postcodes have been deemed uninsurable by insurance companies with little or no evidence of increased risk. This is especially true in regional and rural Australia, where insurance companies have argued that the flood and fire risk is high, despite having insured properties in these areas for decades. What we are experiencing is a complete market failure, and when market failures occur there is a legitimate role for government to intervene. The government must consider the broader implications of insurance premium increases for household budgets and businesses.”
“Households and businesses are experiencing some of the most difficult economic times in living memory. Many of us in this place have talked about the cost of energy, groceries or fuel or about the economic hardship emanating from these rises. However, there hasn't been much discussion about the cost of insurance. While I've tabled a motion on this matter, I wish to again raise this important issue before the chamber. Across the nation, insurance premiums are rising well above the inflation rate and, in many instances, by more than 100 per cent. This is unsustainable, leaving many households and businesses opting to either not insure their assets or reduce the value of their cover. In doing so, they put themselves in serious financial risk.”
“Are we not going to do anything in this place in this term to address gambling advertising or do anything meaningful on the late Peta Murphy's work? She gave 20 months of her life to that report, and for what? We have done nothing in this place. The least we could do is require these gambling apps to have at the very front of every page how much a person is losing. Hopefully before many young men take their lives or families break down they can see that they need to change and access help. I would like to cede the rest of my time to the honourable member for Clark, who is seconding this bill.”
“I would also just like to say that I think it's egregious that it was reported that the Prime Minister met to discuss the ban on gambling ads late last year with Network 10, the Seven Network, the Nine Network, the AFL and the NRL chairman and CEO. What I don't know and what hasn't been reported is whether the Prime Minister also met with the families who are experiencing gambling harm, the parents of the children who have committed suicide because of gambling. They are young adults, often men. I don't know whether the Prime Minister has met with Tim Costello or the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Financial Counselling Australia, Relationships Australia or gambling harm experts with lived experience.”
“In reality, this is often just a monthly email and it ends up going into a person's junk folder and the customer has to go and look up the data. They have to actively go looking for that information. What this bill would do if passed is require every app to show in real time exactly what the losses are with a very simple banner at the top of the screen. Technology can do it. It's the will of this place that must change to make it happen. With Australians losing $32 billion every year in gambling, we must do something. We are doing so very little, and the ones who are affected most are young people, particularly young men. I must say that not only do I call on all members, particularly government members, to support this private member's bill to make this happen. This is only about providing information and transparency.”
“Key recommendations which remain largely unactioned in almost 20 months since its release include: At that time, we knew that Australians lost over $25 billion in gambling in the 2018-19 year, but since then gambling losses have spiralled to $32 billion in the 2022-23 financial year and online gambling is now the fastest-growing form of gambling in Australia, and yet we are still not addressing advertising. We're still not addressing this harm. Research conducted in the 12 months to March 2024 by Roy Morgan shows: The National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering was agreed by the former federal government and states and territories on 26 November 2018 and was updated on 3 May 2022. Since 2022, under this agreement, online gambling operators have been required to share information about net wins and losses to their customers.”
“Mr Minear was certain this data, already required to be provided by gambling operators to their customers, could be displayed in a more accessible way, to help gambling consumers make informed choices, and that's what this is about. With so many gambling apps and websites, and wall-to-wall gambling ads, it has never been easier to gamble away the roof over your head while you're still under your roof. The online gambling harm report acknowledged: Australians outspend the citizens of every other country on online gambling. This is wreaking havoc on our communities.”
“It has a six-month lead time to ensure that there's a smooth transition, and an exception to the offence is created for operators who can show they have exercised due diligence to avoid breaching this restriction. Last year I reached out to Jake Minear. He has been working in technology with mobile phones for 30 years. He proposed this in his submission to the parliamentary inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm that was chaired by the late Peta Murphy MP. This suggestion aligned well with my private members' bill to ban use of credit for online gambling—and that's been implemented by the government—and to require customers to acknowledge their net win/loss position each time they log on to a gambling website or app, just so that they can pause and think about the losses.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This is a very exciting private member's bill, and it's going to use technology that exists and the knowledge that gambling apps already have. It would require them to display real-time, user-friendly information, right at the top of the screen of every page on an app, about a customer's net losses and wins. This could be by displaying a banner at the top of all screens while wagering, showing in red or green the net position of wins and losses since the commencement of this bill, and over the current month and calendar year. This would really show those who are using these apps exactly how much they've lost. Offences and penalties would be created for online gambling operators who allow customers to gamble without having this information prominently displayed at all times.”
“They might have worked in hospitality, fast food or whatever for those first couple of years and then think to themselves, 'Actually, I'd really like to take on an apprenticeship,' but by age 21 or 22, that's an adult apprenticeship. It is not a traditional junior apprenticeship under junior apprenticeship wages. A lot of employers will not take on that 21- or 22-year-old, simply for the enormous cost for that small business. My other concern relates to the cap on the numbers and how the smaller states like South Australia will fair in the carve-up of these places. I support this bill, and I call on the government to give careful consideration to the employer incentives for small businesses as I mentioned and the equitable allocation of places across our nation to ensure that states like my state of South Australia get their fair share.”
“These are targeted incentives for those areas that are deemed in shortage by the Jobs and Skills Australia—of an additional $2,000 payment above that standard base payment payable to employers, as well as completion payments of $2,500 once the apprentice or trainee completes their qualification is payable to the employer and an additional amount of $3,000 to be payable quarterly across two years for an adult-age apprentice. We talk about an adult-age apprentice, but, really, we're often talking about a young person, aged 22 or 23, who maybe got out of school and wasn't entirely sure what they were going to do.”
“They want to employ more trainees and apprentices, but the constraints that I mentioned previously stop them from doing so. I acknowledge that there are a number of programs that exist in this space, but I think we can do more. In reviewing submissions to the government's Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Incentive System, I thought the recommendations of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry were particularly useful. They included the creation of a five-year job-creation incentive program with standard base-level payments to all employers of apprentices of up to $2,000 per quarter across the first two years for trainees and apprentices.”
“We are expecting small businesses to carry the load of training the next generation, whereas if you go back 30 years, it was actually government that was the biggest apprentice trainer in Australia—certainly in South Australia. The South Australian government was the largest apprentice holder. It's not anymore. The other support that I think small businesses and apprentices need is greater support in mentoring, providing that relationship and connecting a young apprentice—or indeed an adult apprentice—with a support network so that they continue their apprenticeship and that they complete their apprenticeship, because too many people take on an apprenticeship and only get to second or third year for a variety of reasons. In my visits around my electorate, this is a common discussion point among small businesses.”
“Anyone who knows about small business in construction knows that, for those first couple of years, the apprentice costs the employer money, and that's money that the employer or small business—particularly if they're a sole trader—can't afford to cover. In the third year, the cost of the apprentice pretty much breaks even, and in the fourth year they start to be able to charge out a little bit more because, by the fourth year, a person tends to have a bit more autonomy and independence. However, they're still under the apprenticeship. They're still being guided. So when we look at small businesses across Australia and we wonder why they're not taking them on, it's because of the cost.”
“Quite simply, policy settings that incentivise commencements and completions work. We need more vocationally trained workers, and this bill does accommodate this need. While I support this bill, I think that there are improvements that we could make to help support employers, with particular attention to small business. Small businesses with less than 20 employees account for 97 per cent of all businesses in Australia. Many, if not most, of these businesses just don't have the cash flow, ability or even capacity to take on apprentices or trainees without additional assistance from the government.”
“I rise to support the Free TAFE Bill 2024. Vocational qualifications are an important part of the post-secondary education mix. However, completions of apprenticeships and traineeships have been in decline since hitting peaks in 2012 to 2014. This deeply concerns me. This decline did not occur in a vacuum. In July 2012, commencement incentives for existing worker apprenticeships and traineeships not on the National Skills Needs List were introduced. In October 2012, additional commencement and completion incentives were removed—$4,000 for diplomas and advanced diplomas, except for aged care, child care and enrolled nursing, and $1,500 for part-time apprenticeships and traineeships. With these few examples, we're demonstrating that there's a direct correlation between vocational education and the incentives and participation.”
“My question's to the Minister for Education. Between June 2022 and June 2024 the Australian population increased by 1.19 million, 4.4 per cent. Over that time, Commonwealth supported places for medicine have effectively stayed the same. With one in three GPs set to retire, the AMA has forecast a shortfall of 10,000 GPs in Australia. Will you urgently lift the number of Commonwealth supported places to study medicine to help address the doctor shortage in Australia?”