Monique Ryan
Kooyong · Independent · Australia
“I second this motion and commend the member for Curtin's motion to refer the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 to the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. This should not be a controversial request.”
“What about the clinicians, the researchers, the public health experts and the community organisations who have spent years documenting the devastating impact of gambling addiction? Some of them have been given days to review this complex legislation and provide feedback on it to a very limited extent.”
“After this sort of delay, the government has no excuses for not getting this legislation right. But it's rushing to introduce legislation that has been denied input from the public.”
“They're special relationships, the glue that holds us together. For Emily, Matt and Lucy, Noah and Maia, Millie and Rory—I know you share those special relationships and I know that they'll continue. I know that Rich knew that too. Parkrun is something we all do together. It's really symbolic of Rich.”
“We were fortunate to have people in our lives who gave us a sense of what was possible—doctors, engineers, teachers and scientists. We learnt the importance and the wonder of learning and science. There was always plenty of sport. We participated in everything, but particularly footy.”
“The government has not responded to that recommendation appropriately. Its proposals fall well short of that. There are ongoing and serious questions about the extent to which this legislation will provide any support or any protections for children and for vulnerable Australians.”
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“I would like to share the words of the grade 6 students from Auburn South Primary School, who believe that gambling is a huge problem and that we need to do more about it. I agree with them. They wrote to me and said: Australia's gambling crisis is terrible. We know the government has added disclaimers at the end of gambling ads. But we think that isn't enough… It might be a good idea if you make ads dedicated to educating people of all the negative effects of gambling. We think this would have a much bigger impact than just a short disclaimer. Australians lose more money through gambling than the government spends on aged care—which is quite a hefty amount. That's true. They continued: If we keep going down this path it will affect and ruin a lot of people and families.”
“This bill amends the Commonwealth Electoral Act to ensure that postal vote applications can be sent to the AEC only by voters. It's an important integrity measure. It's a simple fix to a significant problem. I thank my colleague for raising this issue and I commend the bill to the House.”
“Adding potential insult to injury, the tight timeframes between an election being called and the return of the postal votes, when extended by the parties' unnecessary elongation of the process, mean that submitting a postal vote via a party risks your vote not actually being returned on time. As with so many integrity measures, federal legislation is behind the states and territories. Most voters are unaware that combining postal vote applications with political material, while it's allowable under Commonwealth legislation, is specifically outlawed by the Victorian state Electoral Act. The AEC would like it gone too. It's extraordinary that third-party postal vote data harvesting has been allowed to go on for so long.”
“Parties do not make it clear to postal voters that they will be processing applications in this way, that they are harvesting voters' personal information for campaigning purposes. Parties do not make it clear to voters that they can and do onsell voters' personal information for a profit. Many post-election complaints received by the AEC relate to privacy concerns. At the 2025 election, the details of more than 670,000 voters were harvested by political parties. One wonders how many of those 670,000 might have complained had they known what was being done with their data. The AEC has warned that third-party postal vote applications cause confusion, privacy concerns and processing delays.”
“I'm proud to second this important motion by my friend and colleague the member for Curtin. Australians are proud of our electoral system. We cherish the system of compulsory voting along with the freedoms and the protections that go with it, so it is a wonder that the Commonwealth Electoral Act permits political parties to intervene in the process of requesting, receiving and returning postal votes. It allows parties to combine postal votes with party political material to collect Australian voters' personal information and onsell that information to unknown third parties. The parties' involvement is all about getting voter information. It is not about facilitating voter access. If it were, the parties would send those postal votes straight to the AEC—but they do not do that.”
“Protecting science from politics, funding it consistently and fostering curiosity will build an Australia on the foundations of truth, flexibility and opportunity. This is the tomorrow that young Australians ask you to build today. Thank you for those words, Alannah. They're absolutely inspiring. I believe every word that you said and I'm completely behind you. It was a great honour to raise your voice in parliament today. Thanks again.”
“A better tomorrow will come when we protect the curiosity and wonder of young Australians today. Science should be embedded within every system of our society, from schools to parliaments. It answers questions and creates solutions about the world we live in. It shouldn't rise and fall with the election cycle or be subjected to political fluctuations. When we apply a scientific framework into every sector of our society, people become more educated, information becomes more accessible, research receives more funding— That's very close to my heart, Alannah, thank you— and decisions are made based on evidence, in a way that helps all Australians. Climate policy, healthcare, industry growth and education can all be strengthened by science. Young Australians are ready to ask big questions, and we need a government that can answer them.”
“Raise Our Voice is an organisation dedicated to ensuring that young people are heard. It has created a platform to elevate the ideas and passions of young Australians and promotes our belief in their ability to shape our future. I have great pleasure in supporting Raise Our Voice in Parliament, and today I share with you the inspiration of Kooyong constituent Alannah, aged 16, who tells us what steps the government should take to build a better tomorrow for young Australians. Alannah wrote: As children, we would all ask questions like "Why is the sky blue?" or "How do birds fly?". Unfortunately, this curiosity often fades as we grow older. When we do not nurture and encourage this fascination, too many people become disconnected from the discipline that thrives on curiosity: Science.”
“It's very important that women have a choice in how they give birth and for that choice to be informed and supported. It's absolutely vital that we provide the very best possible support for those parents who do experience miscarriages, stillbirths or neonatal death. So, again, I thank my friend and colleague the member for Werriwa for raising such an important issue in the House this evening.”
“Many women experience fragmented care models with mixed medical and midwifery care or GP shared care when they would prefer a continuity-of-care model. This might include continuity of midwifery care in the public system, private obstetric care or care from a privately practising midwife in the private system. Continuity of care is particularly important for high-risk populations such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, migrants and refugees, and remote and rural women. However, it is not available to or accessible for many. At least 14 private maternity units around the country have closed in the last five years alone. It's absolutely vital that we maintain local services to provide patients with the choice, to reduce the travel burden, to manage obstetric emergencies and to ensure equitable care.”
“It's really important that we continue to support research into this area as part of our efforts towards public health monitoring and continuous improvement. While every woman has the right to choose her preferred model of maternity care and place of birth, there are risks associated with some forms of birth, such as freebirth, which can result in poor outcomes for mothers and for babies. All deliveries should be attended by trained professionals able to provide medical support when needed to always ensure the best possible outcomes for mums and for babies. The recent evidence of better outcomes in private obstetrics in Australia suggests that we really need greater continuity of care in our public system.”
“It's absolutely vital that we ensure appropriate access to bereavement counselling, that we improve hospital protocols for miscarriage and stillbirth and that we recognise the emotional toll of these experiences on mothers and fathers. We have to ensure that we always provide best practice bereavement and mental health care for all parents, including those who have subsequent pregnancies, which can be really difficult after such losses. It's also important that we acknowledge that our Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities face disproportionately higher rates of stillbirth and that they often lack culturally safe care. Australia's National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan was launched in 2020 after a 2018 Senate inquiry which established a lack of improvement in our rate of stillbirths.”
“But every loss, whether through miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death, is a personal tragedy. So this month, and especially on 15 October, we remember those babies who are no longer with us. Every baby matters, and every baby deserves to be remembered. As a paediatric neurologist, I know that compassionate care, timely support and open conversations are so important to help parents and children recover from this loss. So I commend organisations like Red Nose, SANDS and the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence that act to lead the way in advocacy support and education. Their work is vital, and it deserves our full backing.”
“I thank my friend and colleague the member for Werriwa for raising this very important issue in the house and for discussing it with such generosity. Australia is one of the safest countries in the world in which to become pregnant and give birth, but there are still risks and losses associated with that process. One in four women—I'm one of them—loses a pregnancy to miscarriage. That is more than 100,000 Australian women every year. Every day, six Australian babies are stillborn. As many as a thousand babies die every year in the first 28 days of life. The loss of a baby, any baby, is a devastating outcome with far-reaching impacts on individuals, families and communities. In the past, as we've heard, these losses were often discounted or diminished, shrouded in silence. Families were told to move on, to try again.”
“Ambitious climate targets provide businesses with the clarity and the confidence to deploy the capital and workers we will need to actually make the net zero transition happen. They're also crucial to attracting international investment and talent. With nuclear being too slow, coal-fired power stations too unreliable and the cost of gas just too much, clear policy settings are critical to enable investment in renewable energy. Our 2035 climate targets matter not only to Australia but internationally as well. Countries can slow global warming only by working together. What we do here sends a clear signal to our trading partners and to our international peers. Australia has more to lose than most countries from climate change but more to gain in leading the effort to combat it. The future for climate action is here.”
“But even that rollout is facing mounting obstacles: delays; rising costs; infrastructure bottlenecks; and localised opposition to the transition lines, which are required to connect new wind and new solar farms to the grid. The uncertainty of sector pathways to net zero emission technologies in some hard-to-abate sectors adds another layer of challenge. We can argue about how to deal with those challenges, but what is beyond doubt is the need to urgently accelerate our climate action. While the transition to renewables is complex, any backward steps—whether they be weak climate targets, pauses in government support for renewable projects or the approval of new fossil fuel projects—all of these fly in the face of science, reason and our future prosperity.”
“Deloitte modelling found that, in a competitive global environment, a 65 per cent target is actually unlikely to drive the capital, innovation and jobs expenditure required for us to build those new export industries. It suggested that a more ambitious emissions reduction target of 75 per cent by 2035 could yield $227 billion in additional GDP over 10 years, growing to $490 billion within 25 years. The Investor Group on Climate Change also found that Australia could lead in the global energy transition, but, without clear policy signals and adequate capital deployment, we risk being left behind. We risk missing out on huge economic opportunities. It's clear that it's not going to be a straightforward transition. To date, we've already been focusing on the low-hanging fruit: rooftop solar and subsidies for large-scale renewable projects.”
“Lost labour productivity could reduce our economic output by hundreds of billions of dollars, and disruptions in global supply chains due to extreme weather events could affect import and export markets. Government budgets will be eroded by the loss of our tax base and by increased spending on disaster recovery and human welfare. The report's implicit message is that we need to cut our emissions faster and more effectively. In that context, the government's 2035 emissions reduction target of 62 to 70 per cent by 2030 is inadequate. Australia has much to gain from the clean energy transition. Our world-class sun and wind resources can underpin new export industries and manufacturing in energy intensive commodities like iron and steel.”
“I thank the member for Griffith for the opportunity to speak to this important issue. Last month Australia's first N ational climate risk assessment report found that every aspect of our nation will be affected by climate change—the economy, food systems in communities, health, national security, transport, energy and, perhaps most of all, our natural environment. We are already paying the cost of climate change. According to the Actuaries Institute, more than 1.6 million Australians are spending more than a month's income every year on insurance premiums. With even a moderate emissions reduction scenario, the cost of recovering from floods, bushfires, storm surges and tropical cyclones could be more than $40 billion every year within 25 years. Australian property values could decrease in value by over $600 billion by 2050.”
“The report on the health impacts of climate change will ensure we have an appropriate level of resourcing over time and that the body of knowledge around climate change impacts is developed to meet the challenges of the coming decades. A high level of visibility and understanding of this area of public health will better inform climate adaptation and mitigation strategies across all agencies and all levels of government. A mandatory reporting regime will strengthen the centre's core purpose. It will safeguard the centre's role as a trusted source of scientific knowledge serving the national interest. And so I commend these amendments to the House.”
“The reports will relate to two specific areas of public health which are of national importance. The report on pandemic preparedness will ensure we have whole-of-government preparedness for public health emergencies by bringing together information on activities across a range of agencies with functional responsibilities such as research, by making sure we have the appropriate medical stockpile that we need for pandemic preparedness and by ensuring we have appropriate facilities for vaccine production and for emergency management. The process of reporting could identify potential gaps and will provide assurance to stakeholders and the general public of our nation's capacity to respond appropriately to health emergencies.”
“That should be a core responsibility of the Centre for Disease Control. It will ensure accountability and transparency of the centre's activities and the whole-of-government preparedness for public health emergencies. Even this weekend, we've seen that they are on the immediate agenda, with elephant seals on the Heard and McDonald islands being affected by bird flu. The next pandemic could be months away—or even less time that that. We need to have reporting requirements which are focused on attention to and resourcing of priority areas. Amendment (5) will provide transparency around government approaches to matters of national importance. It will encourage the culture of science, expertise and public trust that we need, and it will safeguard the core purposes of the Centre for Disease Control.”
“These amendments aim to position the CDC as an authoritative and valuable contributor to the understanding of and policy advice on climate change impacts on public health, particularly in the absence of any other national body which currently has this focus. Amendments (3) and (4) will ensure that the first statutory review of the act will be undertaken within the first three years—and every five years thereafter. The centre is an essential public health authority; we all agree on that. Scrutiny of the establishment and its functions at the earliest opportunity will ensure that it meets public expectations from early in its course. Amendment (5) will introduce mandatory reporting on matters of national importance, the health effects of climate change, and pandemic preparedness. Its purpose is to inform.”
“I note that the addition of public health exposures and occupational exposures has been supported by the Public Health Association of Australia, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and even the Australian Council of Trade Unions—a body with which the government may be familiar. Amendment (2) refers to the functions of the director-general, which set out the centre's advisory role and the intersections with and coordination of bodies with health responsibilities within the CDC. The health effects of climate change are captured under the existing definition of 'public health matters' in this bill, but what is not captured is the importance of the Centre for Disease Control in providing integrated advice in a matter of national and global consequence.”
“(2) A statement under subsection (1) is to be known as a Biennial Statement on Pandemic Preparedness . (3) The Minister must cause a copy of this biennial statement to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 5 sitting days of that House after the completion of the preparation of the statement. Amendment (1) refers to the definition of 'public health matters'. Each of the topics listed in the bill relates to forms of public health and harm, and it's clear and obvious that they should be the natural responsibilities falling within the scope of a well-defined and fulsome CDC. This amendment captures the additional harm of occupational exposures and the public health responsibility for injury prevention related to these.”
“78B Biennial statement on pandemic preparedness (1) Within 6 months after the end of every second financial year, commencing in the year after the commencement of this Act, the Minister must prepare a statement of activity that relates to pandemic preparedness including: (a) data and information collection, coordination, analysis and dissemination relevant to Australia's pandemic preparedness; and (b) public education and awareness raising; and (c) planning and preparation for future health threats; and (d) development of health guidelines and standards; and (e) reports or materials published; and (f) emerging threats; and (g) reviews and learnings from past experience; and (h) the effectiveness of the Commonwealth's policies in reducing risks.”
“(2) A statement under subsection (1) is to be known as a Biennial Statement on Health Effects of Climate Change in Australia . (3) The Minister must cause a copy of this biennial statement to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 5 sitting days of that House after the completion of the preparation of the statement.”
“(5) Page 64 (after line 12), after clause 78, insert: 78A Biennial statement on health effects of climate change (1) Within 6 months after the end of every second financial year, commencing two years after the commencement of this Act, the Minister must prepare a statement of activity that relates to the health effects of climate change including: (a) data and information collection, coordination, analysis, and dissemination relevant to the impacts on Australians' health of climate change; and (b) public education and awareness raising; and (c) planning and preparation for future health threats; and (d) development of health guidelines and standards; and (e) reports or materials published; and (f) emerging threats; and (g) reviews and learnings from past experience; and (h) the effectiveness of the Commonwealth's policies in reducing risks.”
“by leave—I move amendments (1) to (5), circulated in my name, together: (1) Clause 5, page 8 (lines 14 to 22), omit the definition of public health matters , substitute: public health matters includes the following: (a) health emergency management; (b) health security; (c) health protection; (d) health promotion; (e) preventative health; (f) disease control; (g) environmental health; (h) the health effects of climate change; (i) occupational exposures; (k) injury prevention. (2) Clause 11, page 16 (after line 25), after subparagraph (11)(h)(viii), insert: (viiia) bodies whose objects include mitigation of, and adaption to, climate change; (3) Clause 78, page 63 (line 24), omit "5 year period", substitute "3 year period". (4) Clause 78, page 64 (line 3), omit "5 year".”
“Avoiding vital medical care often results in later and more-severe presentations to urgent care clinics or emergency rooms. If this government really values primary health care it has to be prepared to pay to have the best primary health care provided to all Australians and to look at new models of multidisciplinary and preventive care within our universal healthcare system.”
“The GPs are simply unable to offer us the best care possible, because of financial and time constraints. In my electorate of Kooyong, according to the recent Cleanbill report: only 16 per cent of consults were bulk-billed in the last financial year; the average out-of-pocket costs for a GP consultation was $49.91; and only 12 per cent of GP clinics in Kooyong are able to bulk-bill every patient. Realistically, schedule fees need to double. For standard consultations, that would mean the government paying out about $100, and even that's going to be less than the call-out fee for your average plumber. We know that young people are increasingly putting off seeing a doctor, because they simply can't afford it. These are false and harmful economies.”
“While four out of five GPs in the H ealth of the nation report said they wanted to provide more and better preventive care to their patients, 82 per cent said that Medicare benefit scheme rebates are simply insufficient to allow them to do that. As a result, only one-third of our GPs are able to offer preventive care to patients. Preventive medicine covers a range of services. It aims to identify problems that could lead to chronic illnesses or diseases. Our GPs' inability to provide those services means they're going to be struggling to cover all bases in health care. They'll be struggling to test blood pressure and cholesterol, struggling to undertake weight management, struggling to screen for cancer and for diabetes, and struggling to touch on drug and alcohol diversion programs, on mental health assessments and on nutrition.”
“Two-thirds say they'd like to participate more, but workforce shortages, lack of funding and infrastructure gaps remain limiting factors for this type of care. Tragically, just this week in Melbourne, I was contacted by a number of constituents concerned about the imminent cessation of GP services at three cohealth community health clinics. These clinics serve vulnerable patients with complex needs, including refugees, people facing homelessness and people experiencing family violence. The current funding method does not adequately address the needs of these individuals. The government's Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program commences this week, but, for too many GPs, it's going to be too little, too late. The program means GPs and practices will receive added financial incentives if they bulk-bill every eligible service and patient.”
“The fee schedule forces GPs to prioritise short consultations over complex ones and to charge significant out-of-pocket fees to patients. Female GPs on average spend more time with their patients, so they're disproportionately disadvantaged. Unsurprisingly, medical graduates are deserting general practice for the specialties. According to the recent H ealth of the nation report, nine out of 10 specialist GPs regularly manage conditions that would typically be managed by specialists because patients have to wait too long to see specialists or simply can't afford to. Multidisciplinary team care in primary health clinics is valued and expanding. More than half our GPs engage in MDT care.”
“I thank the member for Lalor for moving her motion. It is true that Medicare is at the very heart of our healthcare system, but, unfortunately, the ideal of universal health care is fast becoming a mirage. Universal health coverage means all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. The reality is that Medicare has been undermined by years of rebate freezes and rising costs, and Medicare schedule fees remain unrealistically low. Australia's ageing population, the growth of chronic health conditions and our increasing mental health needs mean GPs are having to schedule longer and more complex appointments. Average consult times have risen, reflecting the increased complexity of those consultations.”
“So many of our decision-making processes are taken in the public eye—with consultations, expert advice, public submissions and published reports based on best evidence. But too often government decisions are inexplicable. Too often they benefit vested interests against the public interest. We need to know who has the ears of our politicians, and we need to close the revolving door. Australians must be able to trust their government. They want this bill debated by their representatives and they want this law passed by this government. This bill is an important contribution to the restoration of integrity and transparency. I commend it to the House and cede the rest of my time to the seconder.”
“Persons engaging in lobbying activity will be required to lodge quarterly returns online, reporting who they've met with, for how long, where and why. Ministers will also be required to publish their diaries for transparency and to strengthen compliance. The bill enforces post-employment prohibitions so that ministers and senior staff are banned from working as lobbyists in their field of public service for three years after they leave federal parliament. It legislates a register of senior government appointments for transparency and for compliance. It introduces real penalties for breaches. It will be enforced by the independent integrity commission. At the heart of this bill is the principle that government decisions are made in the public interest and in our shared national interest—and that they are seen to be.”
“A code which allows our Foreign minister to award more than $500 million in contracts to a contractor and then to accept a job with that contractor less than 12 months after leaving politics is corrosive of public trust. A code which permits a health minister to award over $135 million in pandemic contracts to a company and then to take a position with that company six months later is corrosive of trust. A code which allows the Prime Minister discretion over its enforcement, a prime minister who, by the way, is the patron of a registered lobbying agency, is corrosive of public trust. The bill that I'm presenting today, the Lobbying (Improving Government Honesty and Trust) Bill 2025 (No. 2), establishes a new, publicly-accessible online lobbyist register, which will include in-house as well as third-party lobbyists.”
“When they leave public office, government representatives shouldn't be able to use their insider knowledge for personal gain for the commercial benefit of their new employer, and they shouldn't be making decisions prior to leaving office which might advance their future employer-to-be. Time and time again we have seen ministers accepting lucrative private sector jobs immediately upon leaving parliament and we've seen the revolving door of industry executives and senior public servants exchanging jobs. A lobbying code of conduct which allows our defence minister to discuss defence business with a global contracting firm in cabinet then take a job with that firm nine days after leaving politics is a lobbying code which is corrosive of public trust.”
“The shortcomings of our system have been acknowledged by the parties when in opposition, but they have been ignored by them when they are in government. Successive governments have been complacent about the adverse effect of rampant lobbying activity. They're conflicted because they accept the personal and political gains served up by the lobbying sector. In November 2023 the voluntary register included 703 third-party lobbyists. Forty per cent of those were former politicians, ministerial advisers or senior public servants. They were profiting from their knowledge and the networks gained from their time spent here in service to the public and funded by taxpayers. What we want—what we need—is to hold public officials to a higher standard of integrity.”
“Repeated audits have identified failure to apply formal sanctions by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and subsequently by the Attorney-General's Department despite evidence of dozens of breaches of the code of conduct. Our current code meets only one of the 10 OECD principles for transparency and integrity in lobbying. The United Kingdom, Canada and the US have legislated strong integrity frameworks which include independent administration, transparency of monitoring, public reporting, post-employment restrictions and penalties. Our states and territories have stronger legislated codes of conduct for lobbying activity than does the federal government. This parliament is well out of step with accepted standards of integrity, but this bill will put that right.”
“Australia's existing federal Lobbying Code of Conduct aims to ensure that contact between registered commercial lobbyists and government representatives is conducted in accordance with public expectations of transparency, integrity and honesty. However, that code of conduct is weak, it is ignored and it is unenforced. And it applies to only 20 per cent of the many lobbyists currently plying their trade in Canberra. The register of lobbyists applies only to third-party lobbyists—paid professionals engaged by corporate clients to influence public officials on their behalf. It does not include in-house lobbyists—those employed by a corporation, a business or a peak body to undertake lobbying activity. Enforcement of this lobbying code has been dismal.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Lobbying activities are communications with government representatives aimed at influencing government decision-making. Lobbying is a legitimate form of advocacy, but it is often available only to the wealthy and the powerful. In this country lobbying has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Governments have a responsibility to seek out broad-ranging perspectives—to guard against real and perceived undue influence from those who can afford to pay for access. A robust statutory framework is needed to safeguard against those perceptions—a publicly accessible register of lobbying activity revealing who meets with government representatives on what policy areas and providing transparency into the government's decision-making processes on matters of national interest.”
“But I ask it to build a CDC that protects all Australians not just from pandemics but from all the preventable diseases that shorten our lives and put strain on our health system. The greatest priority of our healthcare system should be to stop Australians getting sick and dying from preventable diseases. The decisions that we make now about the scope, the remit and the funding of this CDC will shape our nation's health for decades to come. This government has an extraordinary opportunity to leave a significant and lasting legacy. It has to be bold enough to take it.”
“It's not just about public health; it's about national resilience. It's about economic opportunity, and it's about ensuring that Australia can develop, manufacture and distribute critical medical interventions, vaccines, diagnostics, equipment and treatments when we need them most. We can do that with faith in our system, transparency and equity. It would be a great tragedy for us to fail this generation and those who are to come by creating an Australian CDC without the vision and the generosity that those generations deserve. So I congratulate the government on creating an independent CDC which will provide transparent advice to government and which will be subjected to regular reviews of its activities and scope.”
“So we have a government which will pay fossil fuel polluters the equivalent of $600 a year per Australian but will stump up only $3 a year per Australian for the premier public healthcare body. We are spending billions of dollars to support industries that are harmful to our health while we are underestimating and underinvesting in the agency which is designed to protect it. Never before has Australia more urgently needed an independent, agile and effective centre for disease control. The challenges we face, from infectious diseases to chronic disease and from antimicrobial resistance to the health impacts of climate change, demand a coordinated, expert led response. This government's vision for the centre falls short of what we were promised during the pandemic. It falls short of what Australians need and what Australians deserve.”
“Compare that to Canada's Public Health Agency, which receives Can$675 million a year, the UK's Health Security Agency, which receives 600 million pounds annually, and the US's CDC, which receives over US$12 billion a year. With $146 billion allocated by this government to health and aged care in 2024-25, devoting less than 0.5 per cent of our healthcare budget to the CDC is a devastating failure. That budget looks even more measly when we consider the cost of the health impacts of climate change. Air pollution alone costs us $6.2 billion a year. Adding insult to injury, we have a government which can find more than $14 billion a year for fossil fuel subsidies. That's 200 times the CDC budget.”
“I move the amendment circulated in my name to that end: That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes the serious mental health and broader health impact of gambling addiction in Australia, and calls on the Australian Centre for Disease Control to prioritise health prevention strategies that include the prevention of gambling harm". To be bold, to be effective, to be world leading, our CDC must be independent, and it must be well funded. Its proposed budget—$250 million over four years and $73 million annually thereafter—is manifestly inadequate.”
“It has physical health impacts such a stress related illnesses, sleep disorders and substance abuse, and it causes social and economic consequences, including relationship breakdowns, financial hardship, housing insecurity and, tragically, domestic violence. In the same way we approached tobacco in the 1970s, we should be addressing this with courage and with vision as a public health crisis by prioritising preventive health, by embedding harm reduction, prevention and education strategies, by providing early intervention and education services and by legislating limits on advertising of the predatory online gambling industry. By doing that, we can limit the hurt and the harm it causes.”
“Children born in 2021 will experience seven times more climate related disasters in their lifetime than previous generations. Fossil fuels cause direct and indirect health harms from air and plastic pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss. So we have a duty to the next generation to map and plan best-practice health care—all forms of health care—for this country. Our CDC should do that from day one. The CDC should consider all preventable health conditions, and this should include the health impacts of gambling harm. Gambling addiction is a growing public health concern that affects individuals, families and communities across Australia. It's linked to mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.”