Steve Georganas
Adelaide · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“It reflects one of our most important national values. Health care should be available to everyone, not just to those who can afford it. Many people prioritise their health and paying their everyday essentials. That is a fact.”
“That means more than 172,000 occasions when individuals and families have been able to receive urgent medical care without needing to attend an emergency department or a public hospital and without needing to face out-of-pocket costs.”
“That is really important because that gives the confidence to those people that I spoke about earlier, those families that are doing it tough that may have previously considered whether they received the health care that they really required and was a necessity or whether they put food on the table.”
“People receive treatment earlier, chronic illnesses are managed more effectively, hospital admissions are reduced and pressure on our emergency departments is eased. Every dollar invested in effective primary care saves costs elsewhere in the system while delivering better health outcomes for Aussies.”
“I too rise to make a contribution, just as the member for Pearce just did, on the Health Insurance Amendment (Incentive Payments and Other Measures) Bill 2026. At its heart is Medicare.”
“In my home state alone, bulk-billing has risen to 80.4 per cent across the state, representing one of the strongest improvements in the country. We heard, the other day, other statistics around the country. They are all increasing, and this is a good thing. It means people are having to fork less out of their pocket when visiting a GP.”
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“We should never forget these conflicts because they are what have made us the nation that we are today, they are what have given us our freedoms—our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion—and they have made us one of the best democracies in the world. That's all due to those veterans that fought for those pillars of our democracy and our system here in Australia.”
“A few of them made it to this wonderful Chamber, this House, to be representatives of their communities when they came back to Australia. Like I said, I think we have a lot of gratitude to pay to those people, to thank them for everything they've done. I'd also like to take this opportunity to particularly thank the RSLs in my electorate in South Australia—the state branch of the RSL, the Kilburn, Unley, Prospect, Hilton, Enfield, Walkerville, West Croydon and Kilkenny RSLs, and the other ex-services associations in South Australia and all of Australia for the work they do to make sure that we never, ever forget. When we forget, we don't know where we're heading. You need to know where you have come from to have a direction and a focus on where we're going.”
“We mark VP Day on 15 August to remember the war, to pay our gratitude to those who served but also to remember that these people, these veterans, were the pillars of our democracy. They were there fighting for our democracy. If we can just think about what it would be like if we hadn't had victory; what sort of Australia would we be living in today? Not only Australia; what would the world be like? We have a lot of gratitude to pay to those veterans who defended our nation, and the best we can do to honour them is to defend the democracy they fought for and defended in World War II, in the Pacific, under atrocious circumstances. We've heard stories of prisoners of war in Singapore, of the prisons all over the Asia-Pacific region—horror stories of people who were tortured and were kept in isolation et cetera.”
“When the war expanded to Asia and the Asia-Pacific in December 1941, Australians faced the possibility that Australia itself could be attacked—and attacked it was. We'd been through World War I in Gallipoli and the beginning of World War II in Europe, where there was a perceived threat to our nation. But this was a real threat. All of a sudden, the enemy was on our doorstep and the next step would be to invade Australia. In fact, following the fall of Singapore on 14 February 1942 Prime Minister John Curtin famously declared that it opened the battle for Australia. Just three days after Curtin's declaration, Darwin was bombed—as the member for Solomon has described to us many times in this place—causing trauma for the people of the Northern Territory and all of Australia to this day.”
“Almost a million Australians served in the war in the Army, Air Force, Navy and the Merchant Navy, with half serving overseas and others serving in key roles on the home front. Approximately 40,000 Australians would die serving in this war. Their graves and memorials to the missing are located right around the world. Fighting in the Middle East and in Europe, Australians helped to defeat the Nazi German regime that was responsible for the war in Europe and for terrible atrocities, including the horrendous Holocaust. They fought in the deserts of North Africa, the mountains and valleys of Greece and Syria, the seas of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the dangerous skies over Europe.”
“I commend this motion moved by the member for Gippsland, who is himself a former minister for veterans' affairs and who, I know, was very well regarded in the veterans community during his time as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. I thank him for this motion today. When I think of VP Day, or the 80th anniversary, I think those of us who were born after World War II. We can only imagine the range of emotions felt by millions of people around the world on Victory in the Pacific, or VP, Day in 1945. I take this opportunity to thank the veterans who have played a role in the history of defending our nation but also in recent years, in Vietnam, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor, and all those who have served at the UN, who are there protecting us and ensuring that we have a safe nation to live in.”
“Changes to the way that universities are funded will start from 2026 and will help more people from the outer suburbs and regions get a chance to go to university and provide them with the support that they need.”
“They are training and learning skills that are much needed in our economy and much needed in Australia at the moment. From 1 July 2025, this Labor government has established the Commonwealth prac payment to support about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing and social-work students while they're completing their compulsory practical training at university. Again, these are important skills in industries, like the health industry, that we need. We have a huge shortage, and these are all making a difference in our nation and our health system. We've also massively expanded the fee-free uni-ready courses, which are life-changing courses that help more students from disadvantaged backgrounds get a chance to access university.”
“That enabled me economically to be able to work and have a decent wage at the time and to also be able to afford to get an education and go on in life and do bigger and better things. It is so important that we make education as affordable as possible for people, and we know that, to build Australia's future productivity and prosperity, we need to educate and upskill more Australians. Last year, the government wiped $3 billion of HELP debt and fixed the system so the indexation on the HELP debts can never increase faster than wages. These are all important measures. This government has locked free TAFE into law, and this landmark policy has seen more than 650,000 enrolments across the country, with approximately 170,000 of these courses already completed.”
“The member for Swan earlier was spot on that, when combined with the 2024 changes to indexation introduced by the government, the 20 per cent reduction in student debt will cut over $16 billion in debt for our students, our graduates and their families. This policy absolutely promotes intergenerational fairness, recognising that the rising cost of quality tertiary education over recent decades—and we all know that quality education can change lives—has coincided with increasing demands for higher qualifications. Back in my day, I went to TAFE; I didn't go to university. I did go to university for a very short time but dropped out because it just wasn't for me. But, when I went back to TAFE in the early eighties, I think the fee at the time was around $30 per semester.”
“I am so proud that this Albanese Labor government will cut student debt by 20 per cent. What this means in my electorate of Adelaide is that the 28,520 students and graduates with a HECS or student debt, including VET and TAFE loans, will enjoy an average saving of $5,000. That's why Labor is building Australia's future through its policies. We know that this will make life easier for more than three million Australians with student debt, their families and their local communities. Whether they're just starting out in their career, saving for a home or juggling a mortgage and a young family, every single dollar counts. As most of us in this chamber are aware, it takes a lot of time, hard work and sacrifice to save or pay $5,500.”
“I'm very proud to be standing here today in this chamber to speak about one of Labor's promises from the last election that we are now bringing to fruition through policy in this House. At the last election, we spoke about the cost of living and that this government will do all it can to help with the cost of living because it was at the top of Labor's agenda. We promised to cut student debt, and the Albanese Labor government is delivering. Today is proof of that. This is a significant policy for the more than three million Australians with a HECS or student debt, and that's why, as promised by the Prime Minister, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, which was presented last week, was the first bill to be introduced by the re-elected Labor government.”
“ACMA and the TIO should be given all the powers possible to ensure that it is wiped out and that these smaller—or any—telcos that are taking part in irresponsible selling practices have the book thrown at them. The reforms proposed in this bill go to the compliance and enforcement regime for consumer safeguards that constitute this comprehensive package of improved arrangements. This is about equipping the watchdogs with the powers that they require. More importantly, we need to do our job and inform consumers about what rights they have when it comes to signing up with new telcos or when things do go wrong and they cannot find a way through it. We need this bill, and that's what this bill is doing.”
“Many people have contacted our office when they've been with one of the providers only to find that the bill the next month or the next quarter is coming from someone completely different. When they come into the office, wanting to know what it was or why they are getting this bill from someone they are unaware of, we sit down, go through it and discover that at some point they signed a form saying, yes, they wanted to be with this provider. Then they explain to me that it wasn't properly explained to them so they could have a period of time to think it through. We need to crack down on those irresponsible selling practices. The reality is that most of the victims are elderly people and people with intellectual disabilities. We've seen plenty of them in my electorate office over the years. It should be wiped out.”
“At the same time, there were different notifications being put out to different residences. One of the smaller telcos picked up on this and went doorknocking in the area, claiming that they were from the NBN and that a particular service would be better enhanced by the NBN. I just happened to be home when one of them knocked on my door. I'd picked up on this and had heard from constituents that this was taking place. When I pressed and asked further questions, it was revealed that they weren't from the NBN; they were from a smaller telco and were actually going door to door. Many people get caught up in these schemes and in these particular scams—I don't want to call them scams, but I suppose they are if you don't know what you're signing up for and they haven't explained it to you.”
“There have been regular high-profile incidents, and we've read about them in the newspapers. We've seen them, including service outages, such as the one I mentioned earlier, and claims of irresponsible selling practices. This is an area that I've been going on about for a long time. We need to come down on irresponsible selling practices. Some examples are where different telcos—mainly the smaller ones—have salespeople going door to door, knocking on people's doors, asking them if they wish to swap from one service to another. One of the most outrageous ones I've seen was when the NBN rollout was taking place in metropolitan Adelaide. The member for Sturt is here as well and would remember that period throughout our suburbs where this rollout was taking place.”
“But the latest data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, the TIO, shows that complaints progressed to the TIO—and many of us in this place have used the TIO or referred people to the TIO, and again I want to pay credit to the TIO for the incredible work that they do—were up 13 per cent between October and December 2024 compared to the previous quarter. It increased by 13 per cent in the last 2024 quarter. There was also a 12.8 per cent rise in small-business complaints. Think of the small businesses and how reliant they are on connectivity for their income. They are absolutely reliant, so that 12.8 per cent rise for small businesses is a worrying trend as well. That's following four consecutive quarters of decline and a spike in the 3G shutdown complaints in October and November.”
“This bill wants to ensure that Australians are protected, have access to reliable high-quality and affordable telco services, and are supported by good, strong regulatory consumer safeguards, such as ACMA's. We want to ensure that the telco industry is working for all Australians, whether they're in the regions, remote areas, regional areas, country areas or in the cities' outer or inner suburbs. We need the best safeguards in place to protect people's telco interests as well as a strong, clear recourse if telcos do the wrong thing. Many Australians are experiencing significant cost-of-living pressures, including around being able to afford critical communications. As I said, it's no longer just that landline; it is a critical connection to everything from work to education to health—your entire life on this device.”
“While Telstra successfully managed to transfer the remaining 346 calls using the backup phone list, they could not provide the callers' digital location information to the emergency service organisations due to that particular disruption. ACMA noted that Telstra has historically had a strong record on complaints in its role as the national triple 0 operator, made considerable efforts to keep the public informed during this outage, subsequently updated its backup phone number list, and appointed an independent consultant to conduct the incident review. This just goes to show how important the role of regulating the telecommunications industry is. It can literally be a matter of life or death. Indeed, staying connected is an essential part of everyday life, especially in our remote communities and regional areas.”
“You can imagine the number of emergency calls that were taking place in those 90 minutes. Some could have been life threatening—a whole range of things. The investigation found that Telstra initiated a contingency process to transfer calls received during the disruption using a list of backup phone numbers. However, several of the phone numbers on the list were incorrect, resulting in 127 calls not being transferred to emergency services for those 90 minutes. It was a fairly serious issue, when you think about it now. Telstra managed those calls by providing callers' details to the relevant emergency service organisations via emails and phone calls.”
“You can get in touch with them only via the internet or a robotic system that they have. It is critical that ACMA has the necessary powers to protect consumers and the ability to appropriately issue penalties to send a strong message to those telcos that do the wrong thing. And it's critical for the consumer to be able to contact that telco when an issue does arise. Just last December, Telstra paid a penalty of more than $3 million for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its triple 0 emergency call centre. An ACMA investigation found 473 breaches of the rules relating to an incident on 1 March 2024, during which Telstra's triple 0 call centre was hampered in transferring calls to emergency services for 90 minutes.”
“As an example, just last week my office received a call from a very distressed gentleman, who I won't identify out of respect for his privacy. His landline service and account had suddenly been disconnected, and this had occurred without any consultation and, obviously, without his permission. What made matters worse is that this particular person is vision impaired and, as a consequence, extremely reliant on his landline service. Fortunately, his telecommunications provider is one of the big players—and I'll name them: Telstra—in the communications sector, so my office, like most offices, had a contact to call. We were able to call the government relations section and have the matter resolved. But of course that's not the case with many of the smaller telcos. A lot of them out there are not as easy to get in touch with.”
“However, all of us in this place have had constituents who have contacted us to talk about some form of inconvenience through their telcos or telecommunications. They come into our electorate offices on a regular basis. I have seen hundreds of people over the years wanting to know why they were cut off when they had paid their bills and why they couldn't get connectivity when they had actually been paying their monthly account and a whole range of things. This is where I have to give praise to ACMA. Many people have been referred to them to resolve their issues, and, I have to say, nine out of 10 times they are resolved. They do a great job. I think this bill will enhance their work and make their work much easier.”
“It was once a year at Christmas if he was lucky and got in early enough. You would have to make your booking quite early. As a consequence, it is incumbent on us in this place to make sure that the telecommunications regulations and consumer protection frameworks keep up with the rapidly advancing technology. The reforms proposed in this bill go to the compliance and enforcement regime for consumer safeguards and constitute this comprehensive package of improvements for those arrangements. Telecommunications should enrich people's lives, and they have. When you think about it, they have—from the days that I spoke about, the sixties, to where we are today. But, at the same time, they shouldn't cause inconvenience, frustration or detriment.”
“So you can see how important it is to ensure that we remain connected and that we receive calls, text messages, emails and all the things that we do on these phones. As I said, that is whether it is for someone to just say a quick hello and be connected to another human being once or twice a week or whether it is for someone who uses their phone continuously for their business, for their work, for their wellbeing, for their health or for a whole range of things, like upcoming appointments. Our access to telecommunications connects us and keeps us informed in a way that would be almost impossible to even imagine in our grandparents' time and for previous generations of Australians. I gave you an example of my father wanting to make a call overseas and booking that call at the GPO to go and do it. That was in the 1960s.”
“When you think of telecommunications and you go back a number of years—from the general post office to Telstra and then the privatisation of Telstra and the opening up of the market for all sorts of telcos to come in—we started off in a period where you had a landline in your house. Some people did and some didn't. If it was an emergency, you would run next door or to the red telephone box and call the emergency number that you needed. Today, it's very different. Our triple 0 numbers across the nation are connected up to Telstra, for example, which runs this part of the service. The fact is that our entire workloads, files and everything for all of us in this place and many other industries are on these devices.”
“This was in the early sixties. I can recall him booking a call at the GPO, the general post office, a day before Christmas or a day after Christmas to go up and talk to his mother once a year, if that was possible. Sometimes it was once every two years. When you think of today and you see these mobile phone devices that we have and which carry our entire lives on them, we are connected not just to our local communities but to the entire world. You can see the rapid changes that have been made in the last 20 to 25 years, and it's only going to change even more rapidly. Therefore, we need telecommunications laws to be enhanced continuously to keep up with that pace and to ensure that the consumer is protected.”
“I to rise to speak on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. I know that this government is committed to putting the Australian consumer at the heart of the telecommunications industry. We have just heard from the member for Blair how important it is to protect the consumer, as our entire lives today depend on our connectivity through our telcos and the different businesses that run telcos. They keep us connected. If you think of the industry and where it was 20 to 25 years ago and where it is today, there is a vast difference. It's completely different. Therefore, we need protection laws to keep up with the rapid changes that are being made with telecommunications. I remember, as a child growing up, my father wanting to talk to his mother, who was on the other side of the world.”
“Our condolences go out to her family, and we pay tribute to everything that she has contributed to the Labor movement, to the women's movement and to health in Australia. Our condolences go to her children, her family, and her grandchildren. Vale Rosemary Crowley.”
“When I was first preselected in 1998 for the seat of Hindmarsh, which was considered an unwinnable seat at the time with a 8.9 per cent margin, there wasn't a lot of support or help around the place, as people were focused on the most marginal seats, but Rosemary called me and said: 'Is there anything I can do? I know that you've got good contacts in the electorate. I know that you're committed.' She basically helped as much as she could and continued to support me right up until we actually won the seat in 2004. I owe a lot to Rosemary for her support, her guidance and for believing in me at a time when—not that other people didn't believe in me—there were other more pressing seats to focus on. I, too, may not be here, like the member for Kingston, if it wasn't for the support of people like Rosemary.”
“In fact, she attended the federal electorate council meetings right up until she moved to Melbourne and would still raise issues regarding health. She would still raise issues about strengthening Medicare and ensuring that people had access to public health. I think she would be proud of the announcements that have been made in the last few weeks by this Labor government. We are in the position that we're in today because of the foundations that people like Rosemary Crowley laid back down in the eighties. As I said, she was a great supporter of mine.”
“We heard on Saturday from Chris Schacht, a former senator and minister from the Hawke-Keating era, about how she campaigned to get that preselection, and she left no stone unturned at a time when, being a woman, it wouldn't have been as easy to get preselection. Some of the comments and remarks she was getting from some of that blokey culture back then were things like, 'We will support whoever is the best candidate,' which we know was an excuse back then to not preselect women, but she left no stone unturned. She telephoned every delegate, every union and every member of every branch until the ballot and was successfully preselected for the Senate ticket to contest the Senate election. I considered Rosemary a friend and a supporter.”
“She was really politicised when she came back from the US, especially when the Fraser government came into power. She had advocated for better health services through Medibank at the time that that was abolished. Even though she wasn't a member of parliament in that period, she campaigned for its reintroduction through her medical contacts and the forums that she had as a medical practitioner to ensure that Medicare came back. We know that Rosemary played a massive role in issues involving women's health and issues that involved health itself. Of course, Rosemary was elected. It was a continuous campaign for her to get elected.”
“If you think back to those years—where she continuously pushed for affirmative action and continuously pushed for women to have a greater say in this great historical political party of the Australian Labor Party—and think of where we are today, as the member for Kingston eloquently put it, with 50 per cent women in our caucus and the same with our state Labor Party in South Australia, it's due to women like Rosemary Crowley and the role that she played in the early eighties to ensure that this came to fruition and became a reality. We heard stories on Saturday of her political career and how she actually campaigned within the party to achieve this against a wall of that blokey culture which existed back then. Rosemary was an extraordinary person. As we heard, she did medicine in Melbourne and then moved to Adelaide.”
“I too rise to speak on the motion on the Hon. Dr Rosemary Crowley. Like the member for Kingston, I too attended the state memorial service in South Australia, together with the member for Makin, the premier and many others that were there to celebrate Rosemary's life and to hear of her achievements and her trailblazing political story, as we've heard from other speakers here today. When you think of Rosemary Crowley, it's an extraordinary story to break through that barrier, that blokey culture, that existed back then not just up here in Parliament House but within the Labor Party itself.”
“In closing, I'd like to thank all the businesses that gave evidence and attended the committee inquiry, the industry bodies, the many government agencies that spoke to us, the community groups, the academics and the individuals that provided written submissions and appeared at public hearings throughout the inquiry. I'd also like to thank you, Deputy Speaker Buchholz, the member for Wright, in your role as deputy chair of the committee; the other members of the committee; and, of course, the secretariat: Mr Andrew Bray, who is here in the chamber, Adrian Daniel, Mia Oberin and April Stephenson for their tremendous work and support of the committee. I commend the report to the House.”
“We must seek to mitigate such impacts by further strengthening relationships with our trusted trading partners while also seeking additional trade opportunities in emerging areas of economic activity and in new markets. Now more than ever we must also actively foster a stronger understanding amongst the Australian public of the value of trade to the Australian economy, to businesses and to individuals. Lastly, amid increasing uncertainty Australia must take every opportunity to continue to strongly emphasise the mutual benefits of the global rules-based trading system and multilateral approach to international trade.”
“In recent years several factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a general rise in protectionist sentiment, as we've seen in the last few weeks, have combined to bring profound changes to the global economy. In just the past few months, the global trade environment has become considerably more uncertain. As a nation that benefits immensely from open trade, this poses a significant challenge for Australia. There can be no doubt that an increase in trade barriers and the reversal of the decades-long progress made towards trade liberalisation is a risk to Australia's ongoing economic prosperity and the livelihoods of many Australians. The Australian government must continue to closely monitor global developments for their impact on Australia.”
“However, despite keen interest in this product globally, their efforts to export the product have been hampered by non-tariff barriers such as biosecurity requirements in the US, classification requirements in the UK and a definite answer on how to classify the product yet to be provided by China. The committee heard of other issues arising as a result of the unfamiliarity of Australian native food and botanical products. Due to these and other examples, the committee recommended that the government continue to work proactively with industry to identify and resolve non-tariff barriers to trade, including advocating for greater standards harmonisation.”
“Often trade opportunities are stifled by challenges outside what we may think of as traditional trade barriers, such as tariffs, for example. The committee heard about the experience of Seven Seasons, an Australian spirits distillery which is owned by an Indigenous family and works with Aboriginal harvesters on Larrakia contrary in the Northern Territory. This is a great example of innovation in trade that is harnessing some of the oldest traditional knowledge of Indigenous people to provide a unique product into global markets. One of their award-winning products is a gin which content green ants.”
“These groups have potential for much greater trade engagement, where the gains can have the most significant impact. The committee's report makes 13 recommendations that it believes will contribute to reducing barriers to participation and to better equipping Australian businesses to engage with trade opportunities, including by publishing more information and data on the update and utilisation of trade agreements; developing a strategy to build the awareness of and capacity for Australian businesses to engage with trade and trade agreements, including through collaboration with industry bodies; accelerating initiatives to streamline requirements and processes involved in accessing trade agreements, particularly those relating to laws of origin and certificates of origin; creating a strategy for enhanced targeted education and outreach programs among groups such as small and medium-sized enterprises, First Nations and diaspora communities; supporting research to better understand how and to what extent different participants in the economy engage with and benefit from free trade agreements; and providing communications material and trade facilitation initiatives in non-English languages to more effectively engage with those local diaspora communities.”
“While Australia has been remarkably effective in reshaping the benefits of trade, there remains considerable untapped potential for further gains. If we are to maximise the economic and social benefits of trade for all Australians, we must ensure that more Australian businesses and communities are able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by free trade agreements around the world. In undertaking its inquiry, the committee sought to understand the challenges that Australian businesses face in accessing the benefits of trade and how they can be encouraged and supported to participate further. The committee was particularly interested in the challenges faced by small to medium-sized enterprises, First Nations businesses and the diaspora communities in benefitting from trade.”
“Many Australian industries and businesses have been highly successful in engaging in international trade even without the benefit of an FTA. In my own electorate in South Australia I know of two businesses that are doing incredible work, one, San Remo, by exporting pasta to Italy, and the other, Omega Foods, by exporting olive oil to Greece, believe it or not. This is through their own connections and knowing the culture, language et cetera. There are a lot of small businesses that use their own contacts to enable them to set up their own agreements with different countries overseas. For some sectors such as agriculture, trade underpins the viability of many businesses, as well as that of the communities in which those businesses are located and the livelihoods of individuals.”
“Open trade and investment flows have enormous benefits for Australia including increased economic growth and jobs creation, improved productivity and greater economic resilience, as well as reduced costs of living and higher living standards for all Australians. Over several decades, our nation, Australia, has built an extensive architecture of trade and investment agreements with 30 partner economies, fostering increased trade flows and deeper trading relationships, as well as closer diplomatic ties. These agreements reduce barriers to trade and they're absolutely essential to providing access to export markets in which Australian goods and services can be sold, as well as enabling access to imported goods and services at lower costs for both producers and consumers.”
“On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, I present the committee's report entitled Final report : i nquiry into the understanding and utilisation of benefits under free trade agreements . Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e). by leave—It's quite fitting that you're in the chair, Deputy Speaker Buchholz, as you are the deputy chair of the trade committee as well. I'd like to acknowledge you and Andrew Bray, our committee secretariat, for the work that you both contributed to the report. Australia is a highly successful trading nation with a strong commitment to very open international trade.”
“The Greek revolutionaries were inspired by the enlightenment and the fundamental belief that people should govern themselves free from tyranny. These same principles continue to define the way we live here in Australia today. Our democracy, like so many around the world, owes so much to those ancient Greeks. The very concepts of citizens having a voice in their government, the rule of law and civic participation trace their origins back to Athenian democracy. Greek Australians in all our electorates here in this nation have played an integral role in shaping our nation, bringing not only their rich culture to Australia but also their deep-rooted commitment to democratic ideals. Therefore, today we say, 'Zito i Ellada'—'Long live Greece'—and long live Australia.”
“Today, 25 March, marks Greek Independence Day, which is celebrated and commemorated throughout Australia by all our Greek community—in fact, by Greeks all over the world no matter where they are. I was honoured on the weekend to attend the wreath-laying ceremony and church service that took place in my electorate to commemorate this special event. It was attended by many state ministers, politicians, opposition members and the Australian armed forces—the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. On this day in 1821 the Greek people rose against the Ottoman Empire, fighting for their independence after four centuries of oppression. This struggle was not merely about reclaiming a nation. It was about restoring the ideals of democracy—ideals first forged in ancient Greece.”
“These important reforms ensure that not only will children get the early education access they need to help develop them and improve their entire educational life but parents will get cheaper childcare services, ensuring that we're putting downward pressure on the cost of living.”
“Indeed, the management of the centre had this to say: 'The past year has been an immensely exciting one for the early learning centres, with major policies and investments from the Labor Malinauskas and Albanese governments paving the way for improved access to high-quality early learning for children and families. So Goodstart is excited to be a part of the ECEC reform process and we deeply appreciate your ongoing support for high-quality, not-for-profit early childhood providers, which helps ensure quality and affordability remain at the heart of early learning.' It's clear how critically needed this government's reforms to the childcare sector are and how important it is to retain childcare workers and help parents and carers struggling with cost-of-living pressures.”
“All of these policies that we have put in place will ensure that they attract more staff, that they are paid a decent wage and that we continue to offer education in the early years of our children. I am also looking forward, as I said earlier, to attending the official opening of the Prospect Goodstart Early Learning childcare centre next month. Goodstart employees were among the first early childhood workers to receive a pay rise. I know they appreciate the support that they and their families and the children they care for are receiving from this government.”