Zoe McKenzie
Flinders · Liberal Party · Australia
“Wet lettuce. That is the official verdict on this government's attempt to prevent harm to Australian kids via social media regulation. 'Wet lettuce' were the exact words the eSafety Commissioner used to describe the reforms a month ago in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.”
“Schedule 1 contains a large number of technical amendments across Commonwealth legislation, while schedule 2 repeals more than 100 obsolete amending acts that no longer have any operative effect.”
“They include amendments affecting the Criminal Code, veterans legislation, radio communications, the Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme, marine safety legislation, family law, freedom of information and electoral legislation.”
“Too often we have seen legislation introduced in haste, legislation requiring significant correction after introduction or legislation producing unintended consequences because proper scrutiny was lacking. Australians expect better.”
“I rise to speak on the Statute Update Bill 2026. The coalition recognises the important role that the statute update legislation plays in maintaining the quality and integrity of the Commonwealth Statute Book. These bills have long been a feature of good legislative practice.”
“It strengthens parliamentary scrutiny, it improves transparency and it provides confidence that the legislation described as technical does not, inadvertently or otherwise, produce substantive legal change. Good lawmaking is not just about good drafting; it is about careful scrutiny.”
The complete record
Every one of 413 lines we hold for Zoe McKenzie, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 9.
“Labor's financial mismanagement at the federal level is matched by equal incompetence at the state level. State levies like the metropolitan planning levy, cladding rectification levies and the Victorian government's recent 'holiday tax' in terms of a short-stay levy are all disproportionate, sitting on the shoulders of my constituents. In the last financial year, there were only 650 residential building approvals; 25 years ago, there were over 2,000—that's a 71 per cent decrease in 25 years—and what it means is higher rents from here. Inflation will continue to go up, and it becomes a vicious circle. ( Time has expir ed ) A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 10 : 53 to 11 : 17”
“That's like another tank of fuel, a school excursion or a big grocery shop that somehow families have got to find. The economists' verdict is clear. AMP chief economist, Shane Oliver, has said: The best thing that Australian governments can do to help bring down inflation would be to cut government spending back to more normal levels, which would free up space for private sector growth without higher inflation. Yet, in this financial year alone, Labor has added $50 billion in new spending; many more interest rate hikes are likely to come. High interest rates do not just mean tighter times around the kitchen table. They mean higher rents, which have gone from an average of around $500 to around $600 a week in my electorate, since this government came to power.”
“In November 2023, interest rates went up. Finally, there was a moment of stability, with a year of no change. Then, with enormous relief, there were small cuts in February, May and August of 2025. Again, yesterday, interest rates went up with pump primed public spending and a bloated budget, keeping inflation well above the RBA's preferred target of two-to-three per cent. My constituents keep doing it tough. The average mortgage holder in this country is now paying $23,000 more a year in interest compared with when this government first came into office. That's a whole second job needed in a household to cover those interest payments. The impact of yesterday's interest rise on a $1 million home loan will be about 150 bucks a month.”
“Yesterday, the Labor government's economic mismanagement again reached into the homes of the Morning Peninsula and landed with bigger bills on the kitchen table. Over the past four years, they've handed bigger bills to my constituents for electricity, for gas, for rent, for school supplies, for eggs, for bread, for ice cream, for insurance, for travel, and, yesterday, we saw the 13th interest rate rise on this government's watch. In June 2022, interest rates went up. In July 2022, interest rates went up. In August 2022, interest rates went up. In September 2022, interest rates went up. In October 2022, interest rates went up. In November, December and February 2023, interest rates went up. In March 2023, interest rates went up. In May 2023, interest rates went up. In June 2023, interest rates went up.”
“Whenever you see me look up in the chamber, open my drawer, walk through the members' lounge or lift a glass of water, please know your father is with me. Vale, Luch. You were one of the best.”
“He was the best—the best we've ever had at that job.' Robert called Comcar and asked if they wouldn't mind if he didn't actually do his job for the next two hours, because Robert wanted to stay for Luch's funeral too. And so we stayed together—together with so many people who make up the patchwork of this amazing building and this amazing democracy and who wanted to be there to say their thanks and farewell to the great man, our friend Luch. We are all better in this place because of our friend Luch. I am better in this place because of our friend Luch. I'm more grateful for life because of our friend Luch. My thoughts are with his wife, Mary, and his beautiful children, Jess, Rebecca and Joshua. Your dad lives on through you. His memory will live on long through this place.”
“I didn't understand a word of it, of course, because it was all in Macedonian, but I didn't need to. It was there that I saw the magic of Luch writ large; love was central, the core of everything he did. The church was filled to the rafters—literally. There were people in the gallery under the ceiling, and tens more spilled out onto the street. As I headed out there, my Comcar driver, Robert, asked why I was going to Queanbeyan. 'I'm off to Luch's funeral,' I said, and Robert was crestfallen. He hadn't heard, and he knew Luch well. 'He used to come to the airport on Sunday nights,' Robert told me. 'He was the only one who actually knew who you all were, and he'd spot you all as soon as you got off the plane.”
“In a world that is full of uncertainty, it is clear we need more people like him. Condolences to his family and yourself for the loss of Luch. May he rest gently and his memory serve as a reminder that kindness is the greatest gift for humanity. And here was a nice one from Andrew Jacobs: This personalises parliament, which often enough comes across like a bunch of overtired toddlers. Fair enough. And then there's my favourite, from someone who didn't know him. Ciaran Crehan wrote of Luch's extensive service, grace and humanity, and concluded: The human spirit lives on and thrives. Be like, Luch. A few weeks ago, a number of us joined Luch's family and local community at the Macedonian Church in Queanbeyan. It was there that Luch saved the best for last.”
“Jim Catchpole wrote: People like that are what makes Australia awesome. He obviously felt connected to something important and made doing it well a key part of his life. Mary-Anne Rapkin wrote: Everyone needs a Luch in their workplace. And Christine Kendrick wrote: What a lovely post for a special person who none of us regular punters knew, but how nice to know there really are people of kindness employed in the Houses of Parliament and who actually keep the wheels turning without egos, Rest in peace to this very special man. Vicki Jones said: What a beautiful soul Luch must have been, Canberra was lucky to have him, and his daughter. Nick Woo wrote: Thank you for acknowledging his contribution to the Australian community at large through his quiet dedication, presence and love for the country.”
“You see, Luch broke Facebook— 278,000 people read my post about him, 2,500 loved it and 200 people made comments on it. But that wasn't the best bit. The best bit was that people just understood Luch. People like Carolyn Sheetz and Ant Lewis, who had worked with Luch in the eighties, made a comment. Jo Ward, who went to high school with Luch, made a comment. People who had noticed him while watching the House on telly, just during question time, like Ray Cook, Jo Dewhirst and John Bourke, all chimed in. Former parliamentarians like Bob Baldwin remembered his love of fishing, and my constituent Gerard Weibrecht compared Luch to Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride . I literally have no idea what that means, but it sounds about right. Then there were those people who Luch had never met.”
“I have been bowled over by the number of people here, not just Luch's fellow attendants but the clerks, the team from the Serjeant-at-Arms' office, the security guards, the committee secretariats, fellow MPs and their staff, former MPs and their staff and former speakers who have come up to me reading the words I had written about Luch on Facebook when I learned of his passing and who all want to express their love for him. It even happened earlier today. What I could not have expected was the impact Luch had on the outside world. When I put up that post on Facebook on 2 January, I thought just my friends and colleagues—the people who know me—would read it, remember him and send a note to his family. What I didn't see was that Luch's final gift to democracy would be going viral on the internet.”
“But, for me, the story about Luch and Jess was indeed the story of Australia—that Luch could come here as a child and spend a life of service, first building and then tending to democracy at its fulcrum, while his daughter contributes to our defence and security at the highest possible level. Some time ago I asked the Speaker if we could tell the stories of the multigenerational families who form the bricks and mortar of the Australian democracy and spirit in the parliament—a small documentary to go in the theatrette upstairs. I now wish I had been so much more insistent. All of us here know what Luch means to this place.”
“In the last term of parliament, he would always ask me about my mum's health and how she was going with her chemotherapy and her immunotherapy. Luch somehow knew mum was all I had. And I would ask him about his morale, about his family, about his Christmas, about his kids, about his fishing, about his adventures. There would often be a giggle. There would always be a photo. Luch loved a photo. He would say, 'Let's get a photo!' Jess, his daughter, is also part of this building's fabric. Jess worked here too. She was on the secretariat for the Parliamentary Joint Committee for Intelligence and Security when I served on it, and Luch was so proud of her.”
“My closest friends from the parliamentary ranks had long left this building by the time I was elected, off to London, New York and Paris to serve the global good, but Luch was still here with a big bear hug and a hearty welcome back as though I'd never left. Luch cared for the parliament and parliamentarians like we were his family. Each day, somehow, he would find a way to come across my path in the chamber. But I would often duck into the attendants' room, where Luch had a small fridge filled with chocolates, which apparently no-one but him was ever allowed to touch. Sometimes, in the lobbies or in the members' lounge, I would find Luch washing glasses or organising the assortment of teabags. There was no rushing past Luch. I'm so very glad that, each and every time I saw him, I'd stop for a bit of a natter.”
“After all, I had roamed these corridors as a 25-year-old working for the Attorney-General on all things constitutional law, criminal law reform, marriage law and even the republic referendum. It was so long ago, and Luch was already here doing his thing. And then I came back as a 40-year-old, as the trade minister's right hand, doing trade deals with China, Japan, South Korea, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Indonesia, India, the EU. And Luch was here doing his thing. When I came back as an elected representative four years ago, Luch was still here doing his thing, together with Barry in Security and little Dom at Aussie's. They were the first people I spotted, and their presence settled my soul.”
“Every day he would leave a small envelope of chocolates in my desk wrapped with my name on the outside. And so it is with Luch's gorgeous gluttony as my guiding spirit that I will use this longer opportunity to talk about my friend. Thank you. Luch came to this place more than 40 years ago. He was one of many who helped actually build this building with his bare hands. He worked in new Parliament House as a labourer and then he became an attendant. But he wasn't just any attendant; he was the attendant—the attendant of all attendants, the big cheese, the man who got to meet Barack Obama, the Speaker's right hand. But, to me, he was my chamber mum. When I first got elected, I arrived here somewhat short of breath, even though so much of it was already so very familiar to me.”
“Today it is the grievance debate, and it occurs to me that I rose here exactly 12 months ago and took some creative licence with the inherent grief in the word 'grievance'. I spoke of the loss of my mum, Ann Shanahan, who had passed that summer, a few weeks before we returned. Today I rise for a similar contribution—not for my actual mum but for my House mum, Ljupco Jonceski, or as all of us know him here in this place our beloved Luch. Luch was this place. With each turn of the cheek and each turn of the head and every time I look up in the chamber, I'll be looking for Luch, as I know so many of us do. I also know that in this place tomorrow there will be a structured moment for all of us to make our reflections about him. But I am gluttonous for my Luch. After all, he was gluttonous for me.”
“Graham Kirk and Tony Marchesani represent the courage of our fire and emergency services. Among the men and women of service to the ADF most associated with HMAS Cerberus , which I visited with the member for Hume on Friday, Commander Stefanie Curic, Leading Seaman Jack Schulze, Lieutenant Commander Scott Shipton and Lieutenant Perri Trew were all recognised for their devotion to the defence of our nation. On Australia Day, we can acknowledge past injustice while recognising how far we have come and the good Australia continues to do for her people. One of our defining achievements has been the weaving together of Indigenous heritage, British foundations and successive waves of migration, an achievement seen across the peninsula on Australia Day.”
“I rise to celebrate the extraordinary Mornington Peninsula locals who were honoured this Australia Day. We are not overrepresented in the honours list; we are overrepresented with people who will not sit still and who always insist on getting things done. Their recognition spans the Order of Australia, the Medal of the Order of Australia, the Australian Fire Service Medal, the Emergency Services Medal and distinguished military honours, including the Conspicuous Service Cross and medal. Debra Griffiths AM was honoured for significant service to nursing and medico-legal education. Aunty Helen Bnads OAM was recognised for her leadership within the Indigenous community. Margaret McArthur OAM, the late Michael O'Rourke OAM and the marvellous Charles Reis OAM have strengthened our peninsula through community service and sport over decades.”
“In my very first words in this place, in my maiden speech, I pondered: what happens here in this parliament and in this country when we find ourselves surrounded on these benches by men and women who have never read Primo Levi's If This Is a Man ? On 14 December I realised that day had already come.”
“The nature of the letters is best summed up by the one from Amy from Melbourne, who said: My young family moved to Melbourne from the States in 2010 for what we thought would be a few years… We never went back—partly because the Melbourne Jewish community has been an unbelievable safe and supportive place for us to live… I have felt rocked to my core since the 7th of October… I watched your interview on Sky News and for the first time in months really felt safe. You speaking out means everything to me… Others who wrote to me spoke of a possible return to Israel, despite the war and despite the danger, in the hope that they would feel safer there than they were feeling in Melbourne and Sydney.”
“People suggested I lacked moral fibre. 'You make me sick.' 'I'm disgusted in you.' 'You are vile.' 'Free Palestine,' many wrote—and one odd one: 'If you've ever wondered how atrocities like the Holocaust happen, it's because of apathetic politicians like you.' I came back to Australia and I talked publicly and often of what I had seen in Israel, the horror of 7 October, the slaughter of innocent people in their homes and the rape and mutilation of women—the targeting, in particular, of those who had sought to live in peace with the people of Gaza in the border-town kibbutzim. And then the letters started coming in, first a trickle and then a flood of gratitude that somebody, anybody, was speaking out for the Jewish people not only in Israel but here in Australia, where they needed to hear it.”
“We ask you, 'Please do not bring them here,' and, in return, we say to you, 'Here you are safe.' Since 8 October 2023, I've no longer been sure that that is Australia's promise. I learned that lesson two years before—to the day—15 innocent people lost their lives on Bondi Beach. I was in Israel, on the Australian parliament's only bipartisan trip to Israel since 7 October, so we could see for ourselves what had happened there. During that visit, I put a single photo up on Instagram—standing with my mate, the member for Macnamara, on the Mount of Olives—and I wrote, 'I am proud to stand on and in Israel with this bloke.' A few hours later, the comments started coming in—hate filled references to 'violent colonial oppressing regimes', 'genocide and terrorism', 'the sound of children being brutally murdered'.”
“In taking the oath, our new Australians pledge loyalty to Australia, to care for our nation and our shared future and to embrace in perpetuity the blessings of this land—because the blessings of this land are many. As a country, we have been particularly good at imparting the notion that, when you come to Australia, you join our way of life—a way of life so amply demonstrated that Sunday night in mid-December when families gathered on a warm, early summer evening at Bondi Beach to have a barbecue, to play games, to have a swim or a surf or to just catch up. We say it less loudly, but we ask you, in coming here, to leave the troubles of your earlier homeland behind, whether ancient hatreds or contemporary wars.”
“I saw it at the Boneo market, where people stopped for a chat to check in on one another and, there too, to stuff more money in those CFA tins, and then at the Portsea Swim Classic, where I was worried about everyone's welfare because of the easterly gale, but the organisers looked at me with a bit of a giggle and said, 'We've got this, Zoe, because we're lifesavers.' Next week, I will join another 50 people as they take the final steps in their marriage to Australia on Australia Day. That's how I like to think of citizenship ceremonies—they are like a marriage, particularly for those who've been in a long-term de facto relationship with this wondrous land. Where I'm from, it's not uncommon to meet someone becoming Australian who's lived here for 50 years already. The choice to become a citizen is a welcome one.”
“I saw it on the weekend at Cliffex Meats in Rosebud, where hundreds of people turned up to thank the CFA of Rosebud and Rye for fighting fires across the state. The people of Rosebud are of modest means, but Bec and Blair put a call out and people turned up and stuffed their $20 and $50 notes into those plastic jars, and our firies chomped down on a snag with some sauce.”
“There is a thing I like to say whenever someone asks me about my electorate. I say, 'I am the luckiest MP in the country.' When I say it, I'm not referring to our beaches or the beautiful opal waters of Port Phillip Bay, and I'm not referring to the sparkling leaves in the hills alongside our vineyards or to our walking tracks, where a daily collision with a koala, an echidna or a roo is pretty common. I'm referring to our people, the people of Flinders. Here's how I describe it: they bring their best selves to meet with me every single day. They bring their kindness, their generosity and their sense of adventure, combined with a sense of resilience and responsibility to one another. They look after each other.”
“I thank all of our hundreds of volunteers—some of them Liberal, some of them not—who have been an army of intellect, joy and passion throughout 2025, keeping Flinders blue. I hope I do you proud.”
“It being the final sitting week of the year, I wish to thank my wonderful staff, who make this job both possible and inspiring: Julia Doyle, Conor Barnes, John Hooke, Katie Wilkie, Marshall Grande, Rocco Labriola, Benn Eccleston and, earlier this year, the magnificent Unity Paterson and Dana Hawtin. I thank also the wonderful leaders of my Federal Electorate Convention: Chair Richard Hurley; Treasurer Georgie Silverwood; Vice Presidents Ed O'Donohue and, earlier this year, Phil Wise; Di Kleinert, who always comes in a duo with her beautiful husband Gordon; Marg Hawker; and Marshall Grande. I thank those who lead the Nepean, Mornington and Hastings divisions, especially Jackie Hamill, Greg Dixon, Virginia Carey, Andrew and Megan Murphy, David Burgess, and Peter and Kay Grey, for all they do for the broader Liberal family.”
“These are issues beyond partisanship—a lesson lost on some, who, earlier this year, endeavoured to arrange such discussion with failed candidates in the last federal election, bafflingly excluding the member for Flinders and the state seats of Nepean and Mornington, even though the member for Mornington at the time was the shadow assistant minister for housing and rental affordability. Shame on those trying to manipulate this issue for partisan passions, and my thanks to Josh for rising above petty motivations. As I said to him in the gym this morning, he is welcome on the peninsula any time.”
“All three community support centres were present for my roundtable, together with the Salvation Army, which meets the highest demand for homelessness services, mostly among women. They are supported by Bolton Clarke, Peninsula Health, Fusion and the Lighthouse Foundation. In coming weeks I'll be working with the CEO of Southern Peninsula Community Support, Jeremy Maxwell, to seek to fill a funding hole of some $350,000 caused by recent changes in federal funding. I am so very grateful to Josh Burns for the time he gave Jeremy and all involved in a meaningful conversation to address homelessness on the peninsula. It was indeed a frank and focused conversation to see what can and must be done to help those most in need.”
“I rise today to thank the members of my community who joined me last week—together with the Special Envoy for Social Housing and Homelessness, the member for Macnamara—to discuss the critical need to assist those who find themselves without a home across the Mornington Peninsula. Over the last year, almost 1,000 people have sought help through our local service providers to find emergency accommodation and access to food rations, the highest need being in the southern Mornington Peninsula, where over 400 people, mostly men, are experiencing homelessness. Around half are sleeping rough on the foreshore and in bushlands alongside our major roads. Another 350 people have sought help in the Western Port region, and roughly half of that number have sought help in Mornington.”
“The Allan Labor government likes to boast about record infrastructure spending but, if you drive down the roads in my area, you'll be forgiven for asking, 'Where has that money gone?' because, on the ground, it sure doesn't look like it's being spent at home. The people of the peninsula deserve better. We deserve a government that understands that road safety isn't a slogan; it's about safe intersections, well-timed works and well-maintained roads. But, right now, every single driver on the Mornington Peninsula can see the same thing: Labor has lost sight of the basics, and it's a disgrace.”
“We learnt this week, of course, that lowering speed limits is one of Labor's mad ideas to limit carbon emissions, according to the department of infrastructure's own consultation. But this proposed change will add many wasted minutes to the daily commute up and down the peninsula. Residents are right to be frustrated—indeed, furious. The southern Mornington Peninsula is now like a battle of Galaga, with ever-changing speed limits, potholes, narrow and dangerous bike lanes, and constant roadworks. Labor's answer is always the bandaid solution of slowing everybody down. If the roads are unsafe, fix the roads. Don't penalise drivers who are trying to get to work or school or the shops on roads that have been neglected for years. The pattern is clear. Under Victorian Labor, the Mornington Peninsula's roads are getting worse, not better.”
“In Moorooduc, parents are living through a traffic management nightmare right outside the local primary school. A local parent, Cass, told me there are four separate roadwork projects, all taking place simultaneously, within a few hundred metres of the school, and the result is gridlock in a 40 kilometre zone. Parents are late to pick up their kids, drivers are becoming aggressive, and there have been multiple near misses and several minor collisions. Local police are now stationed at the site during pick-up times—not for speeding, but just to stop traffic chaos from breaking out. That's not policing; it's babysitting the government's horror mismanagement. To top it off, our council recently flagged an intention to lower speed limits along Point Nepean Road between Dromana and Rye to between 40 and 50 kilometres an hour.”
“This single intersection has seen over 30 serious accidents since 2012. Eighteen thousand vehicles travel along the Nepean Highway in Mount Martha every single day. The coalition committed to fixing this intersection back in 2019, and, six years later, drivers entering or exiting Uralla Road are still taking their lives into their own hands. After years of persistent advocacy by me and, indeed, my predecessor, the nearby Forest Drive intersection finally got its upgrade—again, funded by the federal coalition. The contrast makes the inaction on Uralla Road even more idiotic—indeed, callous. How many more accidents will it take before the Labor government actually delivers? Every time the government delays, the risk persists. And it's not just the highways.”
“This is the Victorian Labor playbook in action: delays, mismanagement and wrong priorities. Rather than upgrading the crumbling local roads that people use every single day, Labor was busy resurfacing one of the better roads on the peninsula, and shutting it down completely to do so for weeks. Ask locals and they'll tell you the real problem isn't the smoothness of the Peninsula Link. It's the potholes that make local driving dangerous, breaking axles and punching punctures in people's tyres. This has largely resulted from the state government's 93 per cent reduction in patching works and a 14 per cent reduction in road resealing and rehabilitation budgets. But nowhere is Labor's neglect more deadly than at the intersection of the Nepean Highway and Uralla Road in Mount Martha.”
“Whilst this led to a huge bank-up of traffic on the old roads heading south, we endured, counting down the days until 29 October, only to find that, when we reached the unofficial launch date of the holiday season—that is, the cup day long weekend—the road was still shut down. As I drove up to the city on Sunday to get my flight to Canberra, I saw kilometres of traffic banked up all the way heading southward. On Monday, I wasn't surprised to receive tens of emails from local businesses, reporting both mad and missing visitors on one of the most important business weekends of the year. The closure has been extended for another two weeks until 15 November, running perilously close to the next bumper business season on the southern Mornington Peninsula—schoolies week.”
“As we get closer to the end of the year, that summertime feeling descends upon the Mornington Peninsula with, at first, delicate discomfort about our roads and traffic, which, by 27 December, becomes abject panic. But this year has been made so much worse by inaction and incompetence from the Victorian state Labor government. Let us start with the Peninsula Link debacle. A planned closure for major works meant that all southbound lanes of Peninsula Link towards Rosebud were closed between Bungower Road and the Moorooduc Highway from 28 September to a scheduled 29 October.”
“We need this government to invest in better mental health education for both young people and adults, lower wait times for online and over the phone crisis support, and more youth advisory groups to shape Australia in terms of mental health. These actions cannot wait. We need this to happen now. This is not about just feelings, this is about the lives of your fellow Australians. So please, I call on this government to make change and invest now in the mental health of young people in order to make Australia a better place for all not just today, but also tomorrow. Thank you, Cooper and your family, for joining me here in parliament today. It brings these words to life would have such a critical program—the Raise Our Voices program—so that you can come here and express your views directly to the Australian people.”
“And I know that young people today are facing a serious mental health crisis. These issues cannot be ignored any longer. We cannot pretend that they simply don't exist. If this parliament doesn't act now, we risk the lives of thousands of young people. If this parliament doesn't act now, we risk losing our next Olympians, our next doctors, our next ministers. My question is: if we can see the issue, why can't you? If we can see what needs to be done, why can't you? Our parliament needs to invest further in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Whilst there are policies in place already, these are quite simply not good enough.”
“Furthermore, common issues with these disorders include zoning out even when your teacher is in the middle of explaining the task or concept, which results in the student being unable to complete the task and having to rely on his or her peers to get the relevant information, as unfortunately, the teacher cannot cater to everyone. This is not good enough. I strongly believe some of these circumstances could be mitigated through better government funding for schools, higher pay for teachers and smaller class sizes. I now go to a speech from Cooper, who is 16 years old, from Padua College at the Mornington campus, who, I am thrilled to say, is in the audience today with his mum and his sister. He writes: We are in the midst of a crisis. Young people are facing a crisis. I'm Cooper, a 16-year-old from the electorate of Flinders.”
“I'm delighted today to read out the speeches of two entrants in the Raise Our Voice initiative from my electorate of Flinders. Matilda, who is 14 years old, from Padua College in Tyabb, says: I write to you today as a young person in Australia, with concern for our education system. Over my two years at high school I have noticed time and time again that the modern classroom is only built for one type of student, someone who can easily focus in large groups or noisy classrooms, however this is not the case for over 570,000 students who suffer with neurological disorders such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and more, for majority of these students they have an extremely hard time remaining on task or focused when in loud classroom settings resulting in them not getting all the work completed and having piles of home work.”
“There was much excitement and enthusiasm, particularly from community group that has argued for years for the much needed investment to redevelop it, only for them to be told the hospital would get—wait for the drum roll: $4 million. Let me help you with the maths. In 2019, federal coalition provided $5 million for a business case. In 2022, the state coalition promised $340 million to rebuild the hospital. Six years later, the Labor Party in Victoria comes to the party with $4 million, roughly 0.01 per cent of what the hospital needs to be rebuilt. Even that is $1 million less than what the federal coalition provided six years ago. We all know that Victoria is broke and that each day another $20 million of Victorian taxpayers' money goes to paying interest on Labor's debt.”
“The Rosebud Hospital is a much-loved institution on the southern Mornington Peninsula. Everyone who lives there has a story of how the hospital and its excellent staff has come to their rescue. But, in recent years, the stories about Rosebud are less about proud births, broken arms or learning to ride a bike and more about long waits in triage, an overwhelmed ED in summer and eventual transport to Frankston Hospital for anything more than a flesh wound. Back in 2019, the federal coalition provided $5 million to the state government, which owns and operates the hospital, to do a business case to rebuild it. A month ago, with great fanfare, the state health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, came to Rosebud for a grand announcement.”
“To return to where I began, the coalition will support the passage of this bill. Whilst its origins may well lie in more quick fixes from Labor, its content, especially around the biometric updates, is generally sound. It is also broadly consistent, in this particular case, with the basic policy direction established under the previous coalition government. We therefore welcome the improvements it should make to the management of Australia's migration, border and citizenship systems, and we hope the changes the bill delivers will represent at least one small step in the right direction in the Home Affairs portfolio for the Labor Party. I thank the House. Debate adjourned. Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.”
“Given that extreme secrecy and a wholesale lack of accountability have been such staples of this government's administration, it's probably right to imagine that the same has happened again in the lead-up to the introduction of this legislation—for anyone outside the bureaucracy knows at this point that the creation of this bill would be the by-product of yet more mistakes rather than any kind of forward-leaning development. We see here again, at the very least, multiple provisions targeted at retrospectively correcting past actions. Overall, this government's approach to home affairs has been a story of confusion, complacency and some chaos. It has represented a very stark contrast to the years before that, when the coalition delivered strength, order and decisiveness.”
“Ministerial infighting, reshuffles, endless reviews and reactive management of one crisis after another have become hallmarks of this administration. Australians have seen detainees released without adequate safeguards; critical infrastructure vulnerabilities left unaddressed; extremely dangerous criminals released, only, in some cases, to commit even more alarming crimes; and the integrity of migration programs eroded by paralysis. In essence, this government's approach has too often been reactive, opaque and, in some cases, incompetent and piecemeal. When Labor encounters administrative or legal difficulties, its instinct is to ignore the seriousness of the problem and then, some time later, rush in here to legislate after the fact—to paper over cracks rather than address the foundations.”
“Over the past 3½ years we have seen repeated wanton examples of retrospective clean-ups and ad hoc fixes across the Home Affairs and Immigration portfolios—evidence of a government playing catch-up rather than leading with competence. Indeed, over the past 3½ years the Albanese government's record in home affairs has been one of disarray, delays and some dysfunction. From the High Court's ruling in the NZYQ decision that exposed shocking gaps in the management of immigration detainees, to stripping the Home Affairs portfolio of its many functions and then restoring them again much later, and to repeated failures in visa processing, border protection and cybersecurity coordination, the government has demonstrated a lack of control.”
“It must ultimately be the case that these exemptions are not used to create backdoor arrangements or any other form of preferential treatment in relation to Australian citizenship for particular individuals or groups, but we are prepared to support at least in principle what appears overall to be a sensible fix. At the same time, it must be said that many of the legal ambiguities this bill seeks to correct, particularly those addressed through deeming provisions that retroactively validate past actions, are almost certainly the result of problems that have been around for a while due to yet more administrative mismanagement and delays under Labor's watch.”