Tania Lawrence
Hasluck · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“There are no wild brumbies in Hasluck. We do, however, have a really fine equestrian community, including being home to the State Equestrian Centre, Yarrada Farm Riding School and Magic Millions. I grew up in York surrounded by animals, including horses, which I deeply love.”
“These programs use a vaccine known as PZP that is delivered to the mares, often by remote darting, and works by preventing fertilisation without affecting the animal's natural hormones or behaviour. It doesn't remove the horses from the landscape, and it doesn't break up the herds.”
“Every person in Hasluck who's ever been to one of our three fabulous urgent care clinics, in Morley, Ellenbrook and Midland, knows they have already demonstrated their value and worth—and just to give you a sense of the numbers, 38,000 have already visited the clinic in Morley, 32,000 in Midland, and just over 6,000 our recently opened cl…”
“Alpine peatlands, waterways and native species habitats are being degraded. These are places that simply cannot withstand that level of pressure. So, yes, action is required. Doing nothing is not an option, but how we act matters just as much as whether we act at all.”
“West of here is Hasluck, and what matters to my community in Hasluck is making sure that we deliver. I'm absolutely proud, under the Albanese Labor government, to be their representative and to deliver on what they need.”
“There are also ground based culling approaches that, where necessary, can be conducted under stricter welfare conditions and oversight, significantly reducing the distress associated with aerial methods. This is a complex challenge. It does require coordination.”
The complete record
Every one of 494 lines we hold for Tania Lawrence, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 9 of 10.
“Rogue operators harm them too; they harm their reputations by association and thus their competitiveness. The honest and the honourable educate themselves about their obligations to consumers and they abide by those obligations. They won't have to put up with poor behaviour giving the industry a bad name. We hope that this bill will not only reward but increase the numbers of the honest and the honourable. That benefits us all, not only those in the telecommunications sector. Every time we want to make an aspect of Australian life fairer, we advance Australia fair. The Minister for Communications sure has been hard at work across her portfolio for the last three years.”
“That's a big ask, but it's a principle worth defending and applying. This bill will require telecommunications providers operating in the market, especially telecommunications retailers, to be properly registered, through the establishment of a carrier service provider registration scheme. This will help to ensure that when a carrier service provider has been found to pose an unacceptable risk to consumers, or is considered to have already caused significant consumer harm, it can be detected and stopped. ACMA will have the tools and powers it needs to protect consumers and hold providers to account. Providers should provide what they say they will provide and do so honourably, honestly and at a fair price. We want to protect the honest and the honourable.”
“When I attend citizenship ceremonies welcoming new Australian citizens—which I had the pleasure of doing just recently with you, Deputy Speaker Goodenough—I talk about the essence of Australia as a nation, I talk about how everyone should be respected and valued, and I speak about our shared commitment to the rule of law. Further, I'm proud that Australia is a foundation member of the United Nations, having played an important role in creating its founding documents. This included a commitment to the rule of law, a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities—public and private, including the state itself—are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated and that are consistent with international human rights and standards.”
“ACMA fined Optus $12 million for failing to route emergency calls through alternative networks and for not conducting welfare checks on affected customers in the 2023 outage. ACMA fined Telstra $3 million for breaching emergency call handling protocols in 2024, and, in early 2022, ACMA issued a record $2½ million penalty to Sportsbet for breaches of the Spam Act 2003. In May 2024, ACMA filed proceedings against Optus in the Federal Court, alleging a significant data breach in 2022. Notwithstanding the forward-leaning approach by ACMA and the dedicated staff that work there, that organisation needs a government willing to act to ensure that it is able to take even greater action to protect consumers. The Albanese government is that government.”
“The bill will allow penalties for codes, standards and determinations to be based on the value of the benefit obtained from the offending conduct or the turnover of the relevant provider. In other words, we'll be looking at stopping people from deciding that the profits are so great that it's worth continuing to offend. Therefore, penalties greater than $10 million can also be applied in certain circumstances. Our belief is that just knowing that will act as a deterrent. No sector of the economy—whether it's in the areas of energy, banking or telecommunications—should be able to shrug its shoulders where compliance is concerned. These powers won't be wasted on ACMA. ACMA already has a great record of enforcement actions against companies that violate industry standards and regulations.”
“Under the changes that the bill proposes, ACMA can immediately take quick and appropriate action to stop harm being done to consumers and hold offenders to account. In the past, that still wouldn't stop those offenders who are rich enough from shrugging their shoulders—no more. The bill will increase the maximum general penalty for breaches of industry codes and standards under the Telecommunications Act 1997 from $250,000 to approximately $10 million, and that's not a slap on the wrist. When you want to enhance consumer safeguards—and I mean really enhance them, not just talk about it—you have to be determined, wilful and watchful; they may be wilful too.”
“The changes proposed in this bill will enable ACMA to take direct and immediate enforcement action against telecommunications providers that have breached their obligations to customers under industry codes. Like wage theft—something the Albanese government has taken strong action about—taking people's money and then failing to provide a service is not okay; it's wrong. At the moment, offending telcos are handed what amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card. However serious the offence, ACMA has to firstly tell them that they're doing the wrong thing and that they really should stop doing it. ACMA can only take further action if the telco ignores the notification and goes on offending. No matter how much harm this offence causes, no matter what distress it creates, they can go on doing it until round 2.”
“The bill will also provide a mechanism for compensation to be paid to consumers—or customers, if you like—when a product doesn't meet a standard or a rule. We like to think of this as encouraging a few certain providers to lift their game. Lifting of the game is also needed when products are not provided in a timely manner. We can wait a certain amount of time for a new car and any number of other products, but, if someone moves into a new building and a network has been installed, the telecommunications must come with it—not in the provider's own sweet time but in a way that is timely and appropriate for their purchasers. Customers, or consumers, are expected to pay their bills in a timely manner, and you've no right to get away with breaches of laws and obligations under codes just because you're big, rich and powerful.”
“There are people who dislike regulatory bodies intensely and complain bitterly about red tape, and I think we can all understand that there are regulations that can be better streamlined and simplified. It's part of the work of every government to fix this. But there are also regulations vital to safeguarding us all. If those regulations aren't enforced, we are not safe. We need to ensure that ACMA is an empowered and effective regulator in our world of new and advanced technology. One of the things that this bill proposes is bringing private networks, for example, into new developments like retirement villages. People in those developments will be enabled to access broadband and voice at appropriate standards and to help and learn from each other.”
“Recently, my office in Hasluck had a call from someone who did not have a computer and did not have a mobile phone. She rang on her landline. We were able to help her by nudging the bank—and I won't name names—which perhaps assumes everyone has such devices and that everyone is comfortable operating them. I give a shout-out to the Good Things Foundation, who literally do good things, firstly by pointing out that one in four Australians is digitally excluded and, secondly, by working to end their exclusion. The Albanese Labor government wants to ensure that there are more things that can be done by another excellent group—ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority. ACMA is a regulatory body.”
“When Australians access broadband and voice services, they should do so with confidence, not with a sense of trepidation or any kind of anxiety as to whether their Zoom meeting will work, whether their email will be received, whether their data is safe or whether the plan that they have paid for will deliver the product that they want without indefinite buffering. I'm always amused by the casual way people use the term 'consumer friendly', as if it's an optional extra, a pleasant change from the normal. If a product is not consumer friendly, it's poorly designed, poorly produced or poorly delivered. Broadband and voice services are already necessities of life for most people—try doing business, banking or even accessing government services without them. Just try living your life now without them.”
“The government of Australia has to stand up in this field, as in so many others, for the people who use these products. They have to be safeguarded from anyone who is more concerned not with the quality of their product but with how astonishingly rich they can get by selling it. Quality products should be fit for purpose. They should be what their producers say they are and do what the producers say they do. They should do no harm nor create difficulties. Good products are reliable and trustworthy, like good people.”
“Not very long ago, telecommunications advanced from a landline with a three-metre curly wire—which allowed us to take the phone behind a closed door to speak out of earshot of our parents—to mobile and data based technologies. In the eighties, mobile phones were reserved for those on the big screen and for the few who owned yachts and penthouses. I was excited just to own a pager! Somehow, I still have a pager today, thanks to the traditions of the parliament. Now telecommunications is largely wireless and often satellite based. It has become an integral part of daily existence for people from all walks of life. Telecommunications is a very modern product, but we can call it a staple, like bread. It has become essential to our lives, whether we like it or not.”
“The great majority of the people whose businesses provide and sell these services and products are as honest as the day is long. They are invaluable, generous and straight-up members of society. A few, however, necessitate the provision of enhanced consumer safeguards. This bill is a part of that necessary process. As the minister said, we have already done more. The minister has created new rules to better support consumers who are experiencing financial hardship and has directed the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, to make new rules to better support people experiencing domestic, sexual or family violence.”
“I trust the electors of Bennelong too will support him to continue to represent their interests in the 48th Parliament. My Western Australian colleague the member for Swan spoke on this bill, because, just as the member for Swan fought for major reforms around financial abuse, the people of Swan know that she has their back on consumer protection in the telecommunications sector. The bill title contains enormously important words: enhancing consumer safeguards. In many ways those words go to the heart of what the Albanese Labor government stands for, what it works for and the people we represent. We know who consumers are and why they need safeguards. They are the people of Australia: people who live here, people who make purchases and people who engage in services in the belief that they are getting what it says on the box.”
“A great number of my Labor colleagues are speaking on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025—there are not so many speakers on the other side—because this bill goes to the heart of what it means to be Labor. The member for Hunter spoke on this bill. The member for Hunter is a champion of the people of his electorate, and he is here defending their rights in this area of policy and in so many others. My friend the member for Bennelong spoke on this bill. I always look forward to hearing from the member for Bennelong, whose sage contributions in this place and in committees are always worth listening to. It is thanks to his work and advocacy that the government has confirmed an end to consumers being stuck with surcharges when paying with debit cards. We are all in his 'debit'!”
“Because business confidence is on the rise, with 25,000 more businesses opening every month, there are now 1.1 million new jobs for those people with the TAFE credentials and everything else. There are people like John from Beechboro, who not only is taking advantage of free TAFE to upskill with mental health counselling to get a better paid job but can now also have an opportunity to own a home. Just like my folks, who benefited from shared equity under the Whitlam government, that's now an opportunity that we're extending to people like John. Unlike the Liberals, who have opposed the Housing Australia Future Fund, who have opposed free TAFE, who have opposed Future Made in Australia and today even opposed tax cuts, we know that— (Time expired)”
“Australians know the Albanese government represents all—everyone—because we too come from all walks of life. We are tradies, we are small-business owners, we're lawyers, and we're doctors. What this means for Australian workers who are suffering from lower wages and cut penalty rates is that we can understand because we've been there too. Belinda, a casual retail worker in Adelaide, tweets that, with worker rights, penalty rates and wage increases and without a robodebt chasing her down for $12,000, she is happier, healthier, safer and saving for a future under Labor. Many of us here have TAFE qualifications. Having free TAFE helps people who want to get new skills and who want to upskill.”
“My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel. What impact have workers at the Department of Veterans' Affairs had on claims processing, and are there any threats to that progress that would leave Australian veterans worse off?”
“The Labor government is cutting that wasteful spending. The then minister Dutton presided over Home Affairs from 2017 to 2021, and in 2022 the Nauru offshore processing contracts cost the taxpayers $485 million despite there being just 22 refugees and asylum seekers there. Should we start talking about the $80 million Watergate for Angus Taylor's company that went to the Cayman Islands?”
“What did that wasteful spending on that subcontracting tender to KPMG lead to? It led to the Australian taxpayers bankrolling a beach shack on Kangaroo Island which had just $50,000 in capital to its name. As I say, Paladin prepared their bid in less than a week, but they secured contract worth half a billion dollars from the then minister, Peter Dutton. There's nothing fishy here apparently. Yet, soon after winning that contract, the LNP's spending gave Paladin a tidy $1.3 million profit per week, all while Paladin was under investigation by the AFP over bribery allegations involving PNG officials. They breached their key performance indicators thousands of times during their first year of operations. What was the then minister Dutton's response? 'Let's renew their contract a few more times.' Wasteful spending indeed!”
“In June 2021, the Federal Court approved a $1.872 billion dollar settlement for the victims of robodebt, incorporating repayment and legal costs—wasteful spending indeed. We have cut the wasteful spending on consultants like the ones that then minister Dutton subcontracted KPMG to investigate. But he didn't investigate Paladin, the company that went on to secure a $500 million tender after one week of preparation—less than a week, in fact; that's how supposedly great they were. No, he contracted KPMG to investigate Paladin Solutions, a completely different and unrelated company that had nothing to do with Paladin Holdings. The opposition leader's response was that he noted these auditing and procurement failures at the time, but did nothing to address them. He walked away from all accountability. What did that mean?”
“The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Dickson, was a member of that government throughout, and he held decision-making roles that led to absolutely outrageous and questionable spending of taxpayer funds. Let's start with one of the most famous examples of all: robodebt. They spent more than half a billion dollars of taxpayer money—$606 million, to be precise—on their robodebt program. Robodebt, to the eternal shame of all who supported it—and that's the entire coalition, the Liberals and the Nationals, led by politicians like the member for Dickson, who thought it was a great idea—gutted people's lives. When the full extent of the damage done was revealed, it was the Australian people who paid for the coalition's mistakes.”
“The Liberals are bandying about their campaign slogan to cut wasteful spending, but they're not committing to cutting any of the investments we've made in early childhood education, TAFE or Medicare—the bulk-billing urgent care clinics, for example—because we know all their cuts are secret. They're not actually prepared to tell the constituents exactly what they intend to cut. All that leads me to believe that when they say, 'Labor, please cut wasteful spending,' the way to do that is to get on with cutting the wasteful spending that was the legacy we were left with by the LNP. Three years sometimes feels like a long time, but at other times it seems short. I want to remind the voters of Hasluck of the debacle that the LNP government left us.”
“Rosie not only has joined the SDA but also is a workplace delegate for the union to keep her work mates safe. I discussed the government's Fair Work changes with Rosie and heard how much she appreciated a government that has not only listened to workers but also acted on representing workers' rights to make workplaces fairer and to make pay and conditions better.”
“The government has brought down two budget surpluses, whereas the LNP couldn't manage one. It brought down inflation, set climate targets in legislation and moved towards those targets. We've improved the nation's health and education funding and made work, pay and tax fairer and better for millions. Yesterday I met with Rosanna and other union members here at the House. Rosie is a member of the SDA and works at one of our major hardware retailers. Poor customer behaviour is just the beginning of the issues faced by retail workers in many workplaces across Australia. No-one deserves a serve. With action by the SDA, Rosie's workplace organised a quick way to respond to issues in the workplace, with a code word, to intervene in cases of bad behaviour before it turns worse or violent.”
“I'm consoled by the fact that I still live among you and that you have the chance to elect Mundaring councillor and deputy president Trish Cook, who will be a marvellous representative for the seat of Bullwinkel. To the voters of Hasluck in the coming election, I promise more of the same: forthright representation, government with integrity and a willingness to continue to grapple earnestly with the issues and challenges that face us in 2025 and beyond. I want the people of Hasluck to remember and contrast the shambolic LNP governments of the decades before this one. The Albanese government has been a model of propriety and restraint, with consistent leadership, building bridges across the globe, nation-building legislation across portfolios, no scandals, no sackings, and no cuts—including no secret cuts.”
“I'm thankful for the people who work in this place supporting the parliament to do its work. From the clerks to the drivers and all the way up to the Library, nothing here could really happen without their collective professionalism. I'm thankful to the people of Hasluck. I thank the community organisations, the sporting clubs, the RSLs, the councils—mayors and councillors—my state colleagues, the many Indigenous organisations I have walked beside, the schools, teachers and families, and the thousands who have called, emailed and walked into my offices in Ellenbrook and in Midland. I say a sorry farewell to the constituents of the Perth Hills, whom, by way of redistribution, I leave behind.”
“My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How has the Albanese Labor government delivered higher wages for Australian workers, after a decade of wages being kept deliberately low? What workplace relation policies would leave Australians worse off?”
“In the holdout countries, such as Russia, the use of asbestos carries with it ongoing health consequences. The Albanese Labor government does not believe in ignoring problems, hiding from them, or running away from them. This is not what the Australian people pay the government to do. They pay them to listen to them—all of them—identify the problems, do the necessary consultation and research, and get to work to fix them. This is what we do, whatever the problems are—an economy with more than six per cent inflation, inactivity on housing construction, a neglected and ailing healthcare system, inadequate child care, or workers' safety care. Dealing with this challenge in relation to engineered-stone products is congruent with the government's attitude to both the health of Australians and the rights of Australian workers.”
“It is estimated that about 230 million workers globally are exposed to silica dust in their workplaces. Study after study tolls the bells of the dangers, but the websites of engineered-stone companies portray their products as safe and sustainable. The other positive effect of our laws, of course, is that other jurisdictions will follow our lead. In August last year, European researchers urged the UK and the EU to follow Australia's lead and ban engineered stone. UK doctors working in the field added their voices to the call. In December, the New Zealand Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety opened consultations on the question of a ban. The manufacture and export and use of asbestos went through a similar process, with most jurisdictions coming to the same conclusion eventually.”
“The bill not only provides a way for customs to do their important work efficiently but also adds another layer of deterrence. It is worth considering that, while we have legislated here at home, the scourge of silicosis caused by engineered stone continues in many countries. Immediate destruction at point of entry will help send a message to importers and manufacturers overseas that Australia is serious about protecting workers. It will be another way in which we help to drive down demand and, in so doing, reduce harm. When I spoke on the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill in 2023, I mentioned the incidence of silicosis in workplaces—in goldmines in Brazil; in Budhpura in India, which is known as the city of widows; and among Latino sandstone workers in Los Angeles.”
“We need a mechanism for the Australian Border Force to deal with seized engineered stone efficiently by allowing for its immediate destruction. This is what we do with other prohibited imports like dangerous and perishable goods and illicit drugs. This bill will allow the Comptroller-General of Customs to decide on the best way to deal with seized stone products, including choosing immediate destruction. Australian Border Force will also be supported by funding of $32.1 million over the next two years, provided in the 2024-25 budget. We understand that an importer might want to challenge this expedited destruction, so we are allowing for the right to recover the market value of the goods if they can establish that the circumstances required to trigger the destruction did not exist.”
“On New Year's Day this year, we strengthened our prohibition with a further prohibition on the importation of engineered stone. That sends a message not just to companies here but to the world. The amendments in this bill, the Customs Amendment (Expedited Seizure and Disposal of Engineered Stone) Bill 2024, will amend the Customs Act 1901 so we can support the effective operation of the import prohibition by enhancing existing seizure and disposal powers under the Customs Act. Engineered-stone products are bulky. They pose significant challenges in all sorts of ways. We can't afford to have them occupying large amounts of space. Under the Customs Act, items seized are generally required to be kept for 30 days prior to disposal.”
“At Monash University in September last year, researchers reported a finding that those workers exposed to silica dust show a higher incidence of blood markers that are the hallmark of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The problems of engineered stone and silicosis date back to ancient Egypt, but the popularity of engineered stone everywhere has now created an international crisis for many thousands of workers. We have learnt from our terrible experience with asbestosis, but the plaintiffs now taking action against companies in relation to engineered-stone products are facing the same difficulties in seeking compensation. It can often be a race against time. Rather than seeing compensation cases and grieving families, we want to keep the people they love alive.”
“In Western Australia, I witnessed firsthand the campaign led and run by Mick Buchan and the west WA branch of the CFMEU for the banning of engineered stone. They worked on this with enormous effort and diligence for more than a decade. Unions are solid repositories of practical experience that we should respect. They listen, they learn, they study and they address real-world problems. It is foolish in the extreme for a political party to eschew that assistance and wisdom. Ignoring the evidence they uncover cannot lead to useful policy. I thank all the determined researchers, especially those from the University of Adelaide, where there has been almost a century of research into silicosis. The research continues. Lung disease is likely to be only the most obvious effect.”
“It would be better for the coalition to put aside its anti-union reflex and instead learn directly—as we do—from those who represent working Australians at the coalface of each industry. Unions have been at the forefront of efforts to come to grips with this dangerous practice and to stop the needless deaths. It was the labour unions in Chile that helped identify silicosis in miners as early as 1930. That's almost a hundred years ago. South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers supported legal cases in that country and in the UK against companies mining asbestos more than 10 years ago. It was Unite—the UK's and Ireland's largest union—that created an online register for silicosis sufferers in 2019.”
“They have done this quite literally with tears in their eyes. I know them, and I commend and thank them. I also thank the Australian Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Transport Workers Union, the United Workers Union, state union bodies and the ACTU. I have previously told members opposite in this place that they need to engage with unions in a proactive and positive way. The coalition spends a lot of its energy trying to demonise unions. They need to remember that, in every workplace, there can be bad actors. Their own party has not been short of them, yet we maintain the view that each of our political parties, just as each of our unions, can rise above the malfeasance of a few.”
“We don't always know straightaway that something is wrong. It took decades to understand the dangers of asbestos and to heed the warnings of voices that so often sounded like fringe agitators. In fact, when I was in high school, I saw the first inkling that something was wrong and beginning to take effect, but slowly—too slowly. It was proposed back in 1988 that there should be a class trip to the Pilbara which would include visiting the asbestos mining town of Wittenoom. Some parents at the meeting were concerned, but they were reassured. So a busload of us camped in the deserted town of Wittenoom, where so many lives have been destroyed. It's now closed to all—unsafe for humans. Unions and labour lawyers are still fighting for justice and fair compensation for the victims of asbestos related diseases.”
“Through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023, we added silicosis to the remit of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency, and on 1 July 2024, in one of those moments that make me proud to be an Australian and especially proud to be a member of the Australian Labor Party, the Albanese Labor government joined with the states and territories to implement a world-first prohibition on the use, manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered-stone benchtops, panels and slabs in Australia—a world first. Why was Australia the first nation to act so decisively? It is in large part because of the collective wisdom and efforts of organised unions. The union movement, so relentlessly attacked by those opposite, has saved countless lives in the fight for safe working conditions.”
“In July 2022, Dr Renee Carey from the Curtin University School of Population Health in my home state of Western Australia reported on the results of a study commissioned by the ACTU. More than half a million Australian workers were being exposed to silica dust across various industries. Her colleague John Curtin Distinguished Professor Lin Fritschi told us that banning engineered stone would save lives.”
“The Albanese Labor government is committed to protecting Australian workers from the harm associated with silicosis and silica related diseases. Silica is a complex material, and we can't live without it, but some silica dust is dangerous—even deadly. It's an insidious attack on human bodies. We now know that silica laden dust produced when cutting engineered and natural stone for use in homes has been maiming and killing workers young and old. Almost one in four engineered-stone workers have contracted silicosis. I'll say it again: almost one in four engineered-stone workers have contracted silicosis. It's a terrible figure, and it can't be allowed to continue. When the Albanese Labor government came into office in 2022, we encountered the growing concerns of anxious workers and frustrated scientists that something was seriously wrong.”
“Australian workers in every occupation, everywhere, are entitled to safe working conditions. They have a right to go to work and to return home safely to their families. The workplace should not be a hazardous place where our bodies or minds are attacked overtly or insidiously. Those attacks are rarely deliberate, though they have sometimes happened. Usually, they occur because somebody, somewhere, is unaware or careless of the fact that workers are human beings entitled to respect. Although they help produce profits of all kinds, they are not things to be used to make profits or assist somebody else's personal ambitions. Their contributions should be respected and their health and safety actively maintained for their own sake, for families' sake and for all our sakes if we are to be decent human beings in a decent society.”
“The Liberals want to withdraw us from the United Nations nature treaty. I could go on. Right now I've got Liberal candidates and Nationals candidates, unbelievably, trapsing around our territory in Western Australia, up in the Perth Hills. My community wants people who will vote in both the House and the Senate for environmental reform. It will only be Labor who does it.”
“But what about the present time? It's Labor that is saving the Great Barrier Reef and its abundant life forms from the 'endangered' list. It's Labor that's rescuing the Murray-Darling Basin, investing $2.8 billion in new dams; the Liberals promised 100 new dams and they delivered two! It's Labor that doubled the funding to national parks. It's Labor that stopped Jabiluka from being mined for uranium. It's Labor that's worked for heritage listings for places like Cape York and Murujuga. It's Labor that funds the science and teaches us to understand what we need to protect. It's the Liberals who defunded the CSIRO and closed down laboratories. We voted to invest $1½ billion in Antarctic science; the Liberals voted against it. It's completely unbelievable. It's Labor that invested $550 million and saved threatened species.”
“My community, like me, want to support better environmental laws, and they've seen how I voted on this matter; I voted in support of a federal EPA. But clearly it was not enough. For this upcoming election, to the voters in my community: you need to understand that if you want these reforms to get through you have to not only vote for me to be back in the House to vote as I did, as my record shows; you need to vote for Labor in the Senate. The Greens and the Liberals have shown their colours. They will not support the environmental change that you are asking us to deliver. We will deliver it but we need your support. We need you to vote for Labor in both the House and the Senate. Unlike that record of the Liberals and the Greens—opposition and blockers—Labor has an extraordinary track record, as I've already articulated.”
“Now the coalition and the Greens have teamed up again to block Australia's first national environment protection agency and Environment Information Australia. Contrary to the suggestion from, sadly, the member for Warringah, this is not hubris and this is not rhetoric; this is the real reality of the numbers. We did not have the numbers in the Senate. The Greens had the opportunity in August to vote in support of it. They told us they had no issue with any of the content in that bill, but they chose to play politics and simply blocked it. You can say that was a consequence of anyone else, but it wasn't; the only people that mattered in that time and place were the people in that Senate. They did not pass the bill.”
“The member for Warringah opposed the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Did anyone else oppose it? As it turns out, it was the Greens. Two Liberal senators actually crossed the floor when it came to the vote. We could have had the carbon pollution reduction scheme. The Greens senators voted against it. It's been estimated that if that bill had passed, Australia's carbon emissions could be more than 200 million tonnes lower. Electricity would be more affordable and the air we breathe healthier, for all. It didn't happen. But Labor didn't give up. In 2011, the Gillard Labor government managed to achieve the passage of a world-leading package of measures to reduce carbon pollution and shift the Australian economy to a clean energy future. The Abbott government repealed it.”
“I thank the member for North Sydney for introducing this motion. As my colleagues have expressed, I'm sorry that this is her last term as a consequence of the electoral boundary changes because she has brought a great deal to this House. This motion is a case in point. It is about sensible debate to set aside political differences to do more to protect Australia's nature and biodiversity, and I agree wholeheartedly with the need to do exactly that. When Labor took office in 2007, we worked to create a carbon pollution reduction scheme. The scheme was due to start in July 2010. The Leader of the Opposition, the Liberals' Malcolm Turnbull, supported it. Our hopes were high. In December 2009, there was a leadership spill in the Liberal Party. The member for Wentworth was defeated by one vote by the member for Warringah, Tony Abbott.”
“I want you to ask: 'What's your voting record on pregnant women accessing paid maternity leave and superannuation on that leave? What's your voting record on early childhood guaranteed subsidies? What's your record on supporting students in high school and university with fee-free TAFE and subsidised HECS debt? What's your record on tax cuts? What's your record on environmental reform? What's your record on supporting a future made in Western Australia?' There are going to be Liberal members and candidates out and about putting out a whole heap of hype. (Time expired)”