Anne Webster
Mallee · National Party · Australia
“The government's first duty is to protect its citizens and, arguably, its most vulnerable citizens—in this case, children. Today that duty extends into a digital world, where the playground has actually moved online and where too often it is unpoliced and unsafe.”
“We know that, despite the ban, large numbers of children are still accessing these platforms because enforcement has been weak and the regulator has not been given the tools it needs.”
“They worry about exposure to violent content; harmful algorithms; cyberbullying; scams; predatory, paedophilic behaviour; and the relentless pressure that social media can place on young people's mental health. These concerns are real, and they deserve to be taken seriously.”
“For many young Australians, social media is where they access news, educational content and creative learning. It's where they stay connected with friends and family. It is where they participate in their communities and engage in public debate.”
“My constituent asks that there be some sort of agency or protocol where these accounts can be collated, investigated and closed where applicable.”
“Labor rejected it and then, in the 2024 budget, accepted it. We pledged in June 2024 that we would deliver the under-16s social media ban, which Labor, thankfully, copied.”
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“Just to be clear, we have one week and two days left of sitting. In my electorate of Mallee, I've had to repeat myself until I'm blue in the face that farmers are environmentalists. They care about their local environment. They are not the villains that others make them out to be in the environment debate. Concerning this package of bills, on 30 October the National Farmers' Federation said: Farmers manage more than half of Australia's landmass. They live and breathe environmental stewardship every day … Their budget depends on it. The welfare of their animals depends on it. Their crops depend on it. In fact, farmers and regional community members have come to me very upset about the destruction of migratory bird, snake and other habitats—in the name of what? Saving the planet, would you believe!”
“The RBA advice from August, which they put in bold type, said: Productivity is the key driver of growth in living standards over time. The cry I hear all the time from every sector is to 'please reduce red and green tape'. Yet this bill package comes with pages that are double the size of this year's budget papers. Can you imagine? Is it workable or does it create a lawyer's picnic—or, let's face it, a banquet—where lawfare already bogs down our productive economy? It's a rhetorical question. We're also being asked to debate this bill package today, despite an approximate 1,500 pages to consider, and a bill introduced on 29 October, just six days ago. The government wants this bill package through this House and passed by the end of the year, even though a Senate inquiry is underway and will not report until March 2026.”
“Those opposite like to paint regional Australians as dopey, but I surveyed over 5,000 of my Mallee electorate voters, and they have worked this government out. A total of 67 per cent of them oppose net zero by 2050, while 82 per cent do not want to pay more than $50 a year for it. Well, what they don't understand is that they're already paying far more than that every year. Net zero has been a drag on our productivity because energy is the economy—we keep saying it. It is not the cheapest form of electricity, and a rapidly growing number of Australians know it. On productivity, today the Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates on hold and we saw the RBA recently downgrade its productivity estimates to 0.7 per cent a year, rather than one per cent.”
“We will expand access to nature for recreation, hunting and fishing. We will empower local communities to lead real environmental action. The Nationals will bring back the Emissions Reduction Fund, which rewarded farmers, landowners, communities and industries for finding smart ways to cut emissions, such as planting trees and improving soil. The potential to store carbon through these initiatives is significant and can alleviate the burden of our energy system to reach better environmental outcomes. We all know Labor can't reach their 2030, 2035 or 2050 emissions reduction targets—it's fantasy. Labor are throwing regional Australia under the bus so the Prime Minister and the climate change minister can strut at an international climate conference. There's no problem for Aussies at home, apparently.”
“This bill, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, and the related bills come as we grapple as a nation with tumbling productivity. Under Labor productivity is down five per cent. Green tape has been identified as a major impediment to major projects going ahead. On this side of the House we are concerned this bill package is introducing even more green tape, not less. I'll talk further about productivity in a moment, but I want to begin by talking about what the Nationals put forward on Sunday, just days ago, as sensible energy and, in turn, environmental policy. As part of our proposal for cheaper, fairer and better energy, we will do environmental stewardship our way. We will reward landholders for regenerating their land. We will strengthen Australians' connection to nature through use, not locking farmers out.”
“I call on the Minister for Communications to take responsibility for this botched shutdown. We need transparency, we need action and we need a government that listens and acts for regional Australians. The Prime Minister likes to say, on repeat: 'No-one held back. No-one left behind.' We all know the saying. But every regional Australian knows he doesn't mean it. When it comes to mobile connectivity—a bit like roads—we have been held back; we have been left behind. It is time for the Albanese government to stop ignoring the regions and start fixing the mess they helped create. Regional Australians deserve better. They deserve reliable mobile coverage. They deserve to be heard.”
“Others were misled into signing up for services that simply don't work where they live. This is unacceptable. The Senate committee made two key recommendations in their final report that must be acted upon immediately by Minister Wells and the Albanese government: The first was to establish a program to help customers who lost mobile coverage due to the 3G shutdown. This program should be co-funded by government and industry and include subsidies for connectivity equipment—boosters, satellite services and replacements for obsolete devices. Secondly, they should expand the national audit of mobile coverage to include off-road areas, including private land such as farms and grazing properties. This data must be collected from consumers, cross-referenced with telco data and published in an accessible format.”
“People are forced to install expensive satellite systems, like Starlink, just to stay connected—all of this during a cost-of-living crisis, where regional Australians pay the same for mobile plans as city dwellers but receive a far inferior service. The government's response to the Senate inquiry's final report was lazy and non-committal. Labor have failed to agree to any new actions. They have failed to take responsibility and they have failed regional Australians. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman received over 51,000 complaints from regional consumers between 2021 and 2024. These complaints ranged from poor service quality and outages to accessibility barriers and unresolved faults. Some constituents have reported faults for years without any improvement.”
“The government should have delayed the shutdown until it was satisfied that the 4G network provided coverage equivalent to, or better than, 3G. But, instead of taking action, the government relied on the promises of telcos—promises that have proven hollow. Thousands of Australians, particularly in rural and remote areas, now face worse coverage or no coverage at all. Phones drop to SOS mode. Medical alarms have failed. Farmers are left without connectivity on their properties. This is not just inconvenient; it is dangerous. The impacts have been widespread. Devices that relied on 3G, such as ag tech tools, security systems and life-saving medical equipment, have been rendered useless.”
“The shutdown of the 3G telecommunications network in 2024 has been nothing short of a disaster for regional communities, and the government's response has been woefully inadequate. I rise today to speak on behalf of regional Australians across this country, who have been left behind again by the Albanese Labor government when it comes to access to telecommunications services. Let me be clear: while the decision to shut down the 3G network was made by commercial operators—TPG in January 2024, followed by Optus and Telstra in October—it was the Albanese government's responsibility to ensure that regional Australians would not be worse off. The Senate inquiry into the shutdown made that abundantly clear.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) the 3G telecommunications network was switched off on the Government's watch in 2024; (b) the interim report of the Senate inquiry into the shutdown made clear recommendations about the impending shutdown, recommending that the Government delay the shutdown until it was satisfied that 'the 4G network provides coverage equivalent to or better than the coverage provided by the licensee's 3G network'; (c) the Government relied on the assurances of commercial operators to ensure equivalent mobile coverage after the shutdown but despite promises, regional Australians have been detrimentally affected and thousands of consumers have been left with worse, or no, coverage at all; (d) furthermore, there have been reports of poor handling of consumer complaints about their loss of service post 3G shutdown; and (e) the Government has failed to take responsibility for the fallout of the 3G shutdown in regional Australia, and its response to the final report by the Senate into the shutdown was again lazy and noncommittal, failing to agree to any new actions; and (2) calls upon the Minister for Communications to take responsibility for the botched 3G shutdown and its impact on the connectivity of regional Australians by: (a) providing transparency regarding the crowdsourcing component of the National Audit of Mobile Coverage and expanding it to include off-road areas (including on private land such as farming and grazing properties) to ensure an accurate picture of the impact of the shutdown on mobile coverage is attained; and (b) thoroughly addressing the first recommendation of the final Senate inquiry report to 'establish a program to help customers that have lost mobile phone coverage since the 3G shutoff'.”
“They're asking to be heard. We do not want to see a single life lost on our roads, but reducing speed limits without fixing roads is not the answer. It's a lazy substitute for real investment and real leadership. So today I call on the government to abandon this misguided proposal. I urge every transport operator, every farmer, every small-business owner and regional council to make their voices heard before the consultation closes on 10 November. We are sending a clear message: regional Australians want and deserve safer roads, not slower roads. We want real solutions, not ideological shortcuts. And, above all, we want a government that listens, invests and respects the people who keep this country running.”
“And Labor's priorities are clearly to cut funding to the regions, shifting responsibility from their own emission reduction failings, increasing our road toll on their own watch and then hoping no-one notices. Let's look at the facts. The government has cut the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program from July next year. They've cut Commonwealth funding for regional road projects from 80 per cent to 50 per cent. They've scrapped the Roads of Strategic Importance program. Across the nation, more than $30 billion in infrastructure projects have been cancelled, delayed or cut. In New South Wales alone, nearly $6 billion is gone. In Victoria, it's $5.5 billion. In Queensland, it's almost $3 billion. And the list goes on. Regional Australians are not asking for much. They're asking for safe roads. They're asking for fair funding.”
“It's a bandaid on a gaping word. It's the easy way out. While the government claims this is about safety, the truth is more ideological. Deep in the detail of the consultation documents, the true motivations for this proposal are revealed: reducing fuel consumption and—guess what—cutting emissions. Now I ask, since when did slowing down regional Australia become foundational to Australia's climate policy? It's clear that Minister Bowen's fingerprints are all over this. Having failed to meet his own unattainable emissions targets, he's now looking for shortcuts, literally. But regional Australians should not be made the scapegoats of Labor's desperate scramble to fudge the numbers. This is not just about speed limits; it's about priorities.”
“Even then, the extension was made quietly with no announcement—just a subtle change on the departmental website. This is not how good policy is made. This is not how you treat Australian people who are keeping our country moving. Let's be honest about what this proposal really means. It means longer travel times for families trying to get their kids to school, to sport or to the doctor. It means longer travel times and higher freight costs for farmers and small businesses already doing it tough. It means regional tourism takes another hit, as visitors are deterred by longer and slower journeys. And for what? Because the government can't be bothered to fix rural roads. Instead of investing in proper maintenance—line marking, road shoulders, rumble strips, pothole repairs—Labor's solution is to simply slow everyone down.”
“I rise today to speak on an issue that strikes at the very heart of regional Australia: our roads, our livelihoods and our way of life. The Albanese Labor government has quietly launched a proposal to slash the default speed limit on regional roads from 100 kilometres per hour to as low as 70 kilometres. Let me be clear: this is not a road safety initiative. It is lazy, shortsighted policy that punishes regional Australians for the government's failure to maintain our rural roads. This proposal was buried in a consultation process that began on 29 September without a press release, without public engagement and with an abysmally short 28-day window for feedback. It was only after strong pressure from the coalition that the government reluctantly extended the consultation to the standard 42 days.”
“I move: That this House: (1) condemns the Government's lack of transparency in its proposal to slash default regional road speed limits from 100 kilometres per hour to as low as 70 kilometres per hour, including its attempt to quietly progress the policy without proper public scrutiny; (2) notes that the Government was forced, at the eleventh hour, to extend its abysmally short 28-day consultation period only after strong intervention from the Opposition; (3) warns that the Government's proposal is a lazy, damaging approach that will slow regional Australia to a crawl, and drive up freight times and costs for farmers, transport operators and small businesses; (4) highlights that instead of fixing the roads by funding maintenance for line-marking, road shoulders, rumble strips and pothole repairs, the Government is cutting the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program from 1 July next year; and (5) calls on the Government to commit to consultation and genuine road safety improvements that protect lives without crippling regional productivity and national supply chains.”
“Christine and Ann Marriott of nearby Baldry said they are now back to relying on UHF to communicate. What happened to 'nobody held back and nobody left behind'? That is the lived experience under Labor in regional Australia.”
“I am sorry to say that life in the regions is even harder one year on from the disastrous 3G shutdown on Labor's watch. Let me give you some examples. I was talking on Perth radio earlier this week. Joe from the Western Australian Wheatbelt called in, saying: I live right on the highway, the Telstra map when you look it up says you may receive 4G with aerial on your roof. I get people knocking on my front door saying could we use your landline I get nothing on the highway—the transcontinental highway! We can't get any service. Then there's Christine from Cumnock, in rural New South Wales. Christine had a car accident in an area with no mobile phone service at all. After the accident, she had to go to a house one kilometre further up the road to call triple 0, presumably on a landline.”
“This is not the first outage on this government's watch but the second. And remember: this government sat on a recommendation to legislate a triple 0 watchdog, as per the Bean review, for 12 long months. They also failed to adequately protect Australians from negative outcomes as a result of the 3G network shutdown, which occurred one year ago yesterday. We do not yet know the full scale of the fallout of that shutdown, with reports in the last week of the discovery of certain models of Samsung phones, which do not currently have triple 0 connectivity as a result of the 3G shutdown. Regional Australians are acutely aware of how their mobile connectivity has deteriorated since telcos chose to turn off 3G on this government's watch. Many have been left with reduced or no connectivity as a result.”
“The key issue is notification of the problem, not the estimate of the scale of the problem. If someone reports a fire on their property and tells the responsible authority, 'It's okay; it's only a small fire,' do the authorities take that on trust and adopt a small-scale response, or do they deploy all available local resources to make their own threat assessment and prevent it becoming a disaster? It is imperative that clear processes exist to ensure triple 0 outages are managed swiftly. There must also be resilience in the system to ensure it does not rely on a single point of failure—for example, a telecommunication company's incorrect estimation of the size of an outage. Triple 0 is the service that underpins all emergency service responses, and Australians need to have absolute confidence it is working.”
“The Australian people deserve to understand what went on, how the system failed and how it will be rectified to ensure this does not happen again in the future. The minister, the department and ACMA must all transparently explain, at an independent inquiry, when they were first alerted to an issue with the triple 0 connectivity and what actions they took. Serious questions remain about welfare checks and whether they were quick and comprehensive enough to identify the full scope of the problem early enough. Did the minister act appropriately in leaving ACMA to investigate, rather than herself swiftly acting on 18 September? It simply is not good enough to hide behind Optus's indication about the scope of the outage, which, it turns out, significantly understated the problem.”
“I second the motion. There are serious questions to be answered about the triple 0 outages on this government's watch, and, if the minister and government are adamant that they did nothing wrong, why not bring the Australian public into their confidence and share, through a proper and transparent inquiry, what they knew and when they knew it? The government has commissioned ACMA to stage an inquiry, but, as ACMA is part of the failed system, how can it be held to account if it is running the inquiry? Independence is the key here. ACMA's inquiry is not independent. We must remember the gravity of the issue at hand. We're talking about the loss of lives—four lives lost. Shirking responsibility is not an option.”
“In contrast, the coalition pledged a $1 billion extension to the program in the lead-up to the 2025 selection, including $500 million for roads. I absolutely want to see us work hard to reduce the road toll in regional Australia but this government would rather put the brakes on drivers. (Time expired)”
“When it comes to regional Australia, Labor's minds are made up and their priorities are cuts, neglect and shutting regions down. In 2020, the then coalition government introduced the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, an uncontested and untied grant program that every council received. This was an important mechanism to increase road funding. Despite this being an overwhelmingly popular program as the 2025-26 federal budget shows, the program is winding down, with no new allocations after June 2026. It was confirmed during supplementary Senate estimates earlier in October that there is no new untied, non-competitive grant funding for roads and local infrastructure in the works to replace this program.”
“Research consistently shows that poor road conditions like inadequate lane widths, unsealed shoulders, lack of barriers, poor signage and degraded pavement contribute significantly to road fatalities, particularly to single vehicle and head-on crashes. These crashes are exacerbated in rural and remote areas, where higher speeds intercept with substandard infrastructure. Yet the Albanese Labor government's solution is to slash the default speed limit from 100 kilometres per hour to as low as 70 kilometres per hour. A shorter than usual consultation merely published on the departmental website was not announced by the minister by press release like other consultations are. The coalition has today embarrassed the government into a two-week extension of time, but this feels like a Clayton's consultation.”
“The rate of annual road deaths per 100,000 population declined over the five years to 2020, but since that low it has increased at an average of three per cent per year, reaching 4.78 per 100,000 population in 2024. In 2023, the per capita fatality rate, based on the location of a road traffic accident, increased dramatically with geographic remoteness from two per 100,000 in major cities to 22.2 per 100,000 in very remote areas. Rates in inner and outer regional areas were four to five times higher than in major cities, and rates in remote and very remote areas were 10 to 15 times higher than in major cities.”
“Forty-seven per cent of respondents rated the condition of unsealed roads as either 'poor' or 'very poor' in 2025. As shadow minister for local government, I am sticking up for them not having a go at them. Regional councils and shires face chronic underfunding, limiting maintenance and upgrades of local roads. Financial sustainability issues are worst in small rural councils due to a limited ability to generate revenue, cost shifting from state and federal governments, the huge infrastructure base that councils have to maintain, limited economies of scale and challenges in winning competitive grants. The state of our roads is inextricably linked to road deaths.”
“The Albanese Labor government is holding back and leaving behind regional Australians—this time by the underfunding of local road improvement and maintenance. Local governments are responsible for local roads in our towns, suburbs and rural areas, with council managed roads making up 77 per cent of Australia's road network by length—that's 678,000 kilometres. In Victoria, local roads make up 87 per cent of the state's road network, and 53 per cent are unsealed. Eighty-seven per cent of respondents to a 2025 survey for local governments in Victoria rated the maintenance of sealed roads in their area as either 'extremely important' or 'very important', and 86 per cent said the same for unsealed roads. Victorian local governments' performance against a measure of maintenance of unsealed roads has been steadily failing since 2016.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) a Royal Automobile Club of Victoria 'My Country Road' survey in July 2024 of over 7,000 Victorians saw 64 per cent of respondents identify potholes and poor road conditions as their top safety issue, up from 46 per cent in 2021; (b) a National Transport Research Organisation survey found 91 per cent of Victoria's 8,400 kilometre road network is rated poor or very poor; (c) the Audit Office of New South Wales identified in November 2024 that in the last available reporting year the estimated total replacement cost of council road assets across New South Wales was around $102 billion but in the same year local councils reported collective road asset maintenance expenditure of around $1 billion; (d) according to the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), local roads make up 77 per cent of Australia's road network by length, with 678,000 kilometres managed by local governments, only 39 per cent of which are sealed roads; (e) ALGA president Matt Burnett described the former Government's $3.25 billion Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) program as a 'game-changer', adding that 'reinstating the LRCI Program will support every council, and more importantly, provide tangible benefits to every Australian community'; (f) former ALGA president Linda Scott said in 2023, 'making the LRCI permanent would be an investment in Australia's future productivity'; (g) Local Government Association of South Australia CEO Clinton Jury said the LRCI program 'made a significant, positive impact on our neighbourhoods by uplifting our regional roads, making them safer for everyone'; and (h) despite the very strong endorsements of LRCI and the road maintenance burden on local governments across regional Australia, the Government axed LRCI with final payments due this financial year and have not provided an alternative to make our roads safer and improve regional productivity; and (2) calls upon the Government to outline how it will fund local roads to improve road safety and productivity for regional Australians.”
“We still don't know how many new mobile-phone black spots were created by the botched shutdown. Regional Australians are sick of being left behind. While the Prime Minister's favourite line is 'nobody held back, no-one left behind', every regional Australian knows he doesn't mean it.”
“I rise to call out this government's abysmal failure to address the fallout of the 3G shutdown 12 months ago, despite a Senate inquiry and two reports about a multitude of issues. When I'm travelling regional Australia, one of the first things people want to discuss is how their mobile phone reception has deteriorated since the shutdown, and that is deterioration from a very low bar. The 3G network was shut down by telecommunications carriers for commercial reasons, yet the Albanese government relied on the assurances of these same commercial operators that they would ensure equivalent mobile coverage post shutdown. The Labor government's response to the final report of the inquiry into the 3G shutdown, released under the cover of Senate estimates, was lazy and noncommittal, failing to acknowledge the issues or agree to any new actions.”
“Regional Australians are not mugs. There are many ways to reduce the road toll, and key among them is road maintenance. When I speak to Mallee constituents, they just want the government to fix the bloody roads.”
“While no-one in this chamber wants to see a single death on our roads, dropping the default speed limit of unmarked regional roads to 70 kilometres an hour is not the solution. Don't get me wrong—the regional road toll is appalling. Two-thirds of all road crash fatalities occur in the regions, yet only 30 per cent of the population live there. But a default speed limit of 70 kilometres per hour will cause more problems than it solves. I ask you, Deputy Speaker: can you imagine facing hundreds or thousands of kilometres at 70 kilometres an hour and doing that regularly if not all day? The economic loss to transport companies and flow-on effects on agricultural and mining companies will absolutely impact on productivity, and the change would certainly frustrate mums and dads who simply want to take their kids to school or to sport.”
“Vulnerable people in these rural towns cannot easily access another service in the next suburb; there is no next suburb. Public transport options are few and far between. People who are destitute simply can't put fuel in their car and drive 50 kilometres to get a food package. Both of these local Mallee organisations have reported an increasing need for emergency food services over the last few years. The Horsham CEFC has met record demand in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years. On Friday 3 October, an email was sent from Simon Pearlman, Funding Arrangement Manager for the Community Grants Hub Victoria—it was sent just last week—to the Horsham CEFC, advising them that surge funding of $45,600 had been approved for the 2025-26 financial year. While this is— (Time expired)”
“In the 2024-25 financial year, the Stawell ICC assisted 292 households and 661 individuals, 209 of whom were living with a disability, 147 of whom were 17 years old or younger and 132 of whom were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Their total spend on groceries and food vouchers was $63,834—considerably larger than their government funding. The Stawell ICC has provided emergency food relief in Stawell and the surrounding regions since 1970—55 years—and is the only provider of non-perishable food in the local area. The Horsham CEFC and Stawell ICC have been kept in the dark about the Albanese government's decision-making process. No alternative funding has been provided to serve the entire community of Horsham and Stawell.”
“In the same year, the Stawell ICC received a total of $48,500 indirectly from DSS via their funding partner Uniting Vic.Tas. Horsham CEFC also received funding via Uniting Vic.Tas in the 2024-25 financial year. Funding to Uniting Vic.Tas has also been dramatically cut by 80 per cent, resulting in the defunding of the Stawell Cottage and creating even more uncertainty for the Horsham CEFC. During the 2024-25 financial year, with the assistance of DSS funding, Horsham CEFC provided 3,000 client contacts and a total of $527,912 in client support with the small amount of funding they received from the government. They have been providing essential emergency assistance to people in need for the past 27 years. They are the major provider of food relief and other support in the Wimmera region.”
“It stated: The Albanese Labor Government is boosting food relief and financial wellbeing support funding by 25 per cent to help ease cost-of-living pressures for half a million Australians. The minister reported that funding specifically for food relief had been doubled. Two charities in the electorate of Mallee, the Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre, CEFC, and the Stawell Interchurch Council via the Cottage, have been providing emergency food relief supported by Department of Social Services funding. But the funding that sustains their essential charitable work ceased abruptly as of September. They had just a week or two of notice. The Horsham CEFC received $82,000 in the DSS grant in the 2024-25 financial year.”
“This morning I am so glad to be here to ask questions of Minister Plibersek. Unfortunately, I don't see her in the chamber. I want to ask her questions about the department's decisions and her decisions to cut funding for emergency relief. These decisions are having devastating effects on small grassroots volunteer run organisations in my electorate who have been providing high-quality emergency relief to Wimmera locals for a collective total of 82 years. Ultimately, these funding cuts will have devastating impacts on vulnerable people in my electorate of Mallee in their hour of need. In July of this year, the Minister for Social Services published a media release.”
“The Department of Social Services recently stripped funding that sustained two other local grassroots organisations with decades of impeccable service delivery—the Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre and the Stawell Interchurch Council. Like the Kerang Neighbourhood House, they rely on funds coming in, and this afternoon I will be challenging the current minister for social services, Tanya Plibersek, about the cost-cutting to these service deliveries, because our local communities absolutely rely on this funding.”
“If it were not for grassroots organisations like Kerang Neighbourhood House, many would not know where to turn. I thank the team for their hard work, dedication and innovation. Kerang Neighbourhood House recently won a $25,000 grant from the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal to purchase a food and emergency relief van. Why? Because they actually need to take groceries out to their local communities. It's not a train ride away. It's not a bus ride away. People are isolated, and they need help. The Kerang Neighbourhood House have done an astounding job in thinking outside the box and applying for small grants where they can achieve those ends.”
“In addition to Kerang Neighbourhood House offering mental health programs to support wellbeing and social connection, they run a food and emergency relief service which is proving to be a lifeline for those in need in the local community. I've got to say walking in there and seeing the vast array of groceries available to help that small community is really amazing. A little over a year ago, they were providing assistance to around 160 people per month. This has risen dramatically to 1,000 people a month. From 160 people to 1,000 people every month is incredible—an additional 840 people. If that isn't alarming evidence of how tough people are doing it under the Albanese Labor government's cost-of-living crisis, I don't know what is.”
“Last week I was in Kerang, a small town in my electorate in north-west Victoria, meeting with representatives of the Kerang Neighbourhood House. I was there to recognise their successful application for the Australia Post Community Grants Program—$10,000 to deliver their healing through art program. The program supports women in Kerang and surrounding rural communities through guided art therapy workshops. The program will create a space for creative expression, emotional health and peer connection, fostering mental health and wellbeing and empowering participants with tools for self-care and community support.”
“The Australian Child Maltreatment Study's latest data indicates 28.5 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over have experienced sexual abuse—more specifically, one in five men and one in three women. On this government's watch, there is a child sexual abuse epidemic occurring. This bill implements one step in the many needed to protect children, our most precious little ones, and ensure future generations of Australians are safe, well and able to contribute fully to Australian society.”
“Why not when it might well be that the offender has been engaging in that activity for some time but never been caught until that time? The AFP led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation's triage unit reports said in recent years that the production of child sexual abuse material is rising very fast. The AFP reported last month a 41 per cent jump in the last reporting year to over 82,700 reports. That increase in the last reporting year is on top of a 45 per cent increase in the reporting year before that. Indeed, reports have more than doubled since 2020 and 2021. The latest figures equate to an average of 226 reports of child online sexual exploitation every single day. The ACCCE has warned that this is the tip of the iceberg due to underreporting.”
“Therefore the question is why, having applied mandatory minimum sentences to other offences, they cannot also be applied to this form of crime. Mandatory minimum sentences under the Crimes Act are already imposed for the aggravated offences of using a postal, carriage or similar service for child pornography material. When the then coalition government introduced mandatory minimum sentences for those offences in 2020, the bill passed without division in the House. It was bipartisan. This bill expands that regime to first instances of offending and transmitting child sexual abuse material. Just one instance of child sexual abuse offending has devastating consequences. Present mandatory minimum sentences apply to cases of repeat offending, but why not for first-time offenders, where significant harm does occur?”
“Without serious consequences for circulating child abuse material, online predators will be more inclined to run the risk of circulating their filth online. On mandatory minimum sentencing, let's be clear that there has been a bipartisan approach to the need for such sentencing previously—for instance, on hate crime offences created earlier this year. I note, even on that front, the AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, has indicated those laws might need to be even stronger after antisemitic attacks that are now occurring. Late last year Labor also introduced mandatory minimum sentences for failure to cooperate with removal from Australia—in other words, for noncitizens facing deportation. The merits of mandatory minimum sentences are not in dispute here.”
“The way our justice system works means we can't do anything in this place about that sentence, but we can ensure that, for similar offending under Commonwealth law, a weak sentence like that never happens again. Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley said on Tuesday: When a monster abuses a five-year-old child, yet is then free to roam the streets of Victoria when that poor child hasn't even turned eight, that is not justice—it is a betrayal. Just two weeks ago, the Albanese government took a delegation to the United Nations to promote how it was protecting children online. If this is genuinely a principle Labor stands by, it would support this bill. Mandatory minimum sentencing generates a strong deterrent effect and is the front line of protecting children online.”
“I second the motion. Victorians, families and all Australians are reeling from the sentence imposed against a person for the sexual abuse of their five-year old daughter on at least 19 occasions, producing 77 files of child abuse material and sending it to a US paedophile in 2023. Leaving aside the public reaction to this monster's gender transition and resultant incarceration in a women's prison, and leaving aside the outcry from women's rights groups, for today's debate the key point is that the effective jail time this monster will serve for Commonwealth offences will be just six months. How does this even relate to the trauma that parent has left their daughter to live with for the rest of her life?”
“Minister Wells committed no new funding to improving regional connectivity in her response to the RTIRC report and kicked the UOMO can down the road till 2028. Regional Australians have been left with no clear signal on whether Labor will fix regional connectivity at all in this term of office. Proposed expenditure agreed to.”