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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“We're already seeing the health impacts of climate change in the 445 deaths attributable to smoke exposure during the 2019 to 2020 Black Summer bushfires, the loss of more than 3,200 Australians every year from respiratory disease related to air pollution—that's way more than the number of people killed on our roads—and the increasing deaths from heatstroke and humidity. Nearly 80 per cent of us have personally experienced at least one extreme weather event since 2019. The climate risk assessment delineated the risks associated with costal inundation, loss of agricultural yield, increased spread of infectious diseases and loss of infrastructure—that is, essentially, compounding and cascading disasters. Two of every three young Australians report that climate concerns negatively impact their mental health.”
“Cancer, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease are our biggest and fastest-growing healthcare challenges. Chronic diseases also render individuals more susceptible to infections and to the health effects of climate change. They disproportionately affect Indigenous Australians, rural communities and those who are living in disadvantage. They contribute to inequity, to shorter life expectancy and to higher healthcare costs. In 2021, the most disadvantaged 20 per cent of Australians economically were six times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the most advantaged 20 per cent. That's why the CDC has to have a mandate to address chronic disease from day one. The recently released National Climate Risk Assessment showed very starkly the risk of climate change to our health, our economy, our environment and our national security.”
“The CDC should coordinate research into the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases from the point of view of population health systems, improving our national burden of disease, increasing life expectancy and monitoring the impact of new interventions and new healthcare innovations. The government proposes that, for at least its first three years, the CDC should be limited to concentrating only on infectious diseases, but that artificial delineation ignores the fact that chronic and communicable diseases are inextricably linked. Chronic diseases represent 85 per cent of Australia's disease burden. They cause or contribute to nine out of every 10 deaths in this country, and 60 per cent of Australians live with at least one chronic condition.”
“It should work collaboratively with state and territory health institutions and it should train the public healthcare workforce of the future. It should be a trusted voice giving us trustworthy public health information—a single authoritative voice at a time when we are experiencing growing misinformation and declining trust in government. The CDC must embed best-practice medical research. It should engage effectively and fully with existing policy frameworks, including the National Health and Medical Research Strategy and the National Reconstruction Fund.”
“Their standing as reliable, independent sources of health information and as independent advisory bodies is vital to the control of disease, both through monitoring and implementing healthcare interventions but also in ensuring that we have public trust in those interventions. Over decades of experience, centres in North America, Africa, Europe and China have led the world in public health workforce development, global immunisation programs, responses to communicable diseases outbreaks, public health measures like seatbelt and antitobacco campaigns and concerted efforts to reduce the burden of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and injury. Our CDC should be all of those things.”
“At the same time, we are witnessing the dismantling of public health institutions in the United States, institutions on which we have long relied. The US CDC, the FDA, the NIH and USAID are being defunded and politicised. It's up to us to step up and to build our own world-leading public health agency. This is a responsibility, but it's also a great opportunity. Globally, centres for disease control play an essential role in the monitoring of disease and in providing sound data collection and analysis and evidence based advice to the government and non-government bodies about management of disease.”
“Many of us remember the fear and anxiety of 2021-22, when a government which had long claimed to have flattened the curve decided to let it rip, when we lacked PCR testing facilities, RATs, PPE and workforce protections. Those of us living in Victoria remember the anger that we felt when our Prime Minister did not consider it a race, when our health minister struggled to secure adequate supplies of vaccines and when our Treasurer turned on his own state while it endured record lockdowns. The residua of that crisis include a life expectancy in Australia which has fallen for the first time in four decades, a depleted and exhausted healthcare workforce, ongoing shortages of medical supplies and record low vaccination levels in our population.”
“I also particularly draw the attention of the House to the fact that the minister has announced that the centre will not be funded or staffed or permitted to tackle chronic diseases and preventive health until 2028 at the very earliest and possibly never. This is a grave mistake. When the now prime minister acknowledged in 2020 that Australia was the only OECD nation without a CDC, he committed to one which would address both infectious and chronic diseases, and that commitment has to be honoured in full. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us what happens when our healthcare system and government responses to a national crisis lack coordination, transparency and preparedness.”
“It has been more than five years since the world experienced a global pandemic which led Australia's dedicated health workforce to recognise alarming weaknesses in our national public health framework. At last, we are filling the gap with our own centre for disease control. I thank the Minister for Health and Ageing for stewarding the Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025. It's important. I look forward to the creation of an independent statutory centre in the new year. But I also foreshadow several amendments to strengthen the ACDC legislation, to expand its definition of public health matters and to ensure that pandemic preparedness and the health impacts of climate change are priority considerations of the centre from its onset.”
“We have to redirect our precious tax dollars to clean energy, to conservation and to the preservation of our biodiversity. We need proactive and preventative investment in climate resilience and nature protection, and that has to include scaling up investment in active and public transport to have any hope at all of meeting the bare minimum 70 per cent emissions reduction by 2035. This government needs to back up these targets with action.”
“In my own electorate of Kooyong, the proposed Hawthorn to Box Hill bicycle path is a local solution with national relevance. Strategic cycling corridors transform urban commuting. They link suburbs and business centres, and they connect integrated cycling networks. The benefits of the Hawthorn to Box Hill path to Kooyong residents would be substantial. They would include safe, car-free commuting for thousands of residents every day, reduced traffic congestion on our major roads, lower transport emissions, increased physical activity and reduced air pollution, and the economic savings that we'd see with reduced fuel and vehicle management costs. The choices that we make in this parliament will shape Australia's environmental legacy for generations. We have to stop subsidising fossil fuels.”
“It will become the largest source of our emissions by 2030. That trajectory is utterly incompatible with our climate targets and demands urgent intervention. At the moment EV sales are stuck at less than 10 per cent of new vehicles sold, which puts a serious question mark over the Climate Change Authority's recent advice to the government that half of all cars sold between now and 2035 need to be emission-free. Without a shift in how we move people and goods we risk undermining our national climate commitments. Instead of the big build, our cities need slim-build, low-cost infrastructure which reduces emissions and improves health. It's a better model for urban Australia and it will be a more efficient allocation of our tax dollars.”
“The great stupidity of our climate policies is exemplified by the billions of dollars we spend on conservation efforts for the Great Barrier Reef and for Macquarie Harbour while we actively facilitating the expansion of the industries which are responsible for their degradation. In the same week that the government released its terrifying national climate risk assessment, it approved the North West Shelf extension, the most polluting project in the southern hemisphere. This brings us to the transport industry. According to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, transport emissions actually increased by 0.5 per cent in the year to March 2025. This was driven by record consumption of road diesel and domestic aviation fuel. Transport accounts for over 20 per cent of our national emissions.”
“We continue to expand our fossil fuel extraction and export industries. In fact, this government supports them with subsidies of over $14 billion every year. The government has announced inadequate targets, but it doesn't intend to legislate them. To date, it has never legislated a policy which will actually force emissions reductions. Other than via some dubious land sector accounting, we haven't significantly reduced our domestic emissions since 2005. The Safeguard Mechanism allows our biggest polluters to buy offsets instead of actually decreasing their emissions. We don't accurately measure or enforce emissions standards or limits on highly polluting industries, and, in those instances where underreporting is identified, our environmental protection agencies, such as they are, generally fail to act.”
“We're anticipating a bad summer for bushfires. I ask the assistant minister to commit to going to the regions at the end of the summer and explaining to those Australians who have just lost their home how this government can possibly justify its active, ongoing and generous support for the fossil fuel industries which are driving the escalating human and economic cost of climate change. Our reefs are bleaching, our forests are burning, our seas are choking with algal blooms and our communities are bearing the brunt of extreme weather events, but over the forward estimates this government proposes to spend five times more on fossil fuel subsidies than on environmental protections and climate resilience. Australia is the third-largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world.”
“My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Minister, Australian medical researchers and universities are struggling to survive while your government is releasing less than half of what it could spend from the Medical Research Future Fund. The Parliamentary Budget Office says that you could spend up to $1.4 billion a year while still keeping $24 billion in a fund which was never intended to hold more than $20 billion. Why won't you release taxpayers' money for the purpose for which it's been set aside?”
“At the same time, we could right now be benefitting from the administrative instability in the US by recruiting world-leading researchers to swell our ranks. This government has no excuse—no reason—not to unlock the extraordinary potential of our medical researchers and our universities by supporting them with the taxpayers' funds that have been put aside for that very purpose. I would argue that the government has a duty to do so, and it should do so immediately.”
“The Medical Research Future Fund was established with the promise of a billion dollars a year to support Australia's world-class medical research sector. For 10 years, it has supported high-value research projects, investigating innovative solutions and translating them to real-world use. But, despite the Parliamentary Budget Office advising that the fund can now deliver $1.4 billion a year, less than half of that is being distributed by this government. While the fund keeps growing, it is bloated with unrealised opportunity. We have an opportunity to support brilliant research, but many high-quality projects and clinical trials never get off the ground, because of a lack of funding. Whole areas of chronic disease are undersupported, and we risk falling behind on developing technologies like proton therapy and AI.”
“Bombing hospitals, targeting medical facilities and murdering medical professionals are war crimes. So the medical professionals of Australia ask this government to act with the urgency and compassion that this crisis demands. We have to act now—lives are depending on it.”
“With my medical professional colleagues, I call on the Australian government to immediately increase funding and logistical support to trusted humanitarian and medical organisations like PANZMA; apply sustained diplomatic pressure to lift the blockade and allow unimpeded delivery of essential medical supplies, food, water, fuel and shelter materials; increase advocacy at the international level, including through the United Nations, for an immediate and permanent humanitarian ceasefire and for the protection of medical workers and facilities in accordance with international humanitarian law; and facilitate emergency relief corridors and allow for the coordinated large-scale distribution of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Health professionals are ethically bound to speak out when human life is threatened on such a scale.”
“Hospitals are operating without adequate electricity, medication, surgical supplies, or personnel. Children are dying of malnutrition and dehydration. Families are surviving without clean water, shelter, or access to basic care. The UN estimates that more than 1000 healthcare workers have been killed in the Palestinian territories since 2023. All healthcare workers in Gaza have been displaced. We recognise the urgent efforts of humanitarian and medical organisations such as the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA), who are working tirelessly under dangerous conditions to provide life-saving assistance. Their ability to operate is severely hindered by restrictions on movement, access and supply chains.”
“(): I rise this morning with an open letter to the government from 4,030 Australian healthcare professionals—doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, paramedics, allied health workers, psychologists, dentists and physiotherapists—who've asked me to call on the Albanese government for urgent action on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. I speak as much for them today as much a member of their community as a member of this parliament. The letter reads in part: As medical professionals dedicated to preserving life and health, we cannot remain silent in the face of the ongoing blockade that is preventing vital medical supplies, food and humanitarian assistance from reaching over two million people in desperate need. The health system in Gaza has collapsed.”
“We must set strong emissions reduction targets which reflect the urgency of the climate crisis and the promise of a better future. Let us act, not just for ourselves but for the next generation of Australians, who deserve clean air, a stable climate and a thriving economy.”
“That's why I'm calling on the Albanese government to set strong emissions reduction targets—targets which align with the science and with our international commitments, targets which aim for at least a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2035 and net zero well before 2050, and targets backed by robust policy frameworks, transparent reporting and accountability mechanisms. We are well supported in this endeavour by the more ambitious targets already set by the states and territories. We are supported by the millions of households who have embraced the energy transition by installing rooftop solar and batteries. Our ambition is achievable; we just need the vision. This is not a partisan issue; it's a national imperative. The decisions we make today will echo for generations. We can choose to lead, to innovate and protect what we cherish.”
“They signal to investors that Australia is serious about clean energy, innovation and future-proofed industries. They create certainty for businesses; unlock new jobs in renewables, green hydrogen and sustainable manufacturing; and position us as a leader in the global transition. Let's be clear. The cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of action. The Climate Change Authority reports that natural disasters have cost this country over $2 billion dollars in the first half of this year. That number is expected to increase to $8 billion a year by the end of this century. Insurance premiums are rising, homes are becoming uninsurable, agricultural yields are under threat and coastal communities face existential risks. Every year we delay, we compound these costs.”
“The world has to step up and greatly reduce its emissions by 2035. The mounting evidence and the pleas form scientists, farmers, firefighters, young Australians and the business community all demand that the 2035 national targets for emissions reduction are strong enough to meet the scale of this challenge. Under the Paris Agreement, Australia is required this year to set a nationally determined contribution to the reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. The science is unequivocal, the global momentum is undeniable and the moral imperative is urgent. Australia has to commit to strong credible and achievable emissions reduction targets for 2035. Strong emissions reduction targets are not a burden; they are an opportunity.”
“All of us in this place are representatives of our constituents, but we're also stewards of the future, our children, our economy and our environment. Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It's here now and it's costing us dearly. From the Black Summer bushfires to the devastating floods of Queensland and New South Wales, the bleaching of the coral reefs from the east to the west of the continent and the ongoing destructive algal bloom to our south, Australians are already bearing the brunt of extreme weather events which are intensifying in frequency and severity. The international panel on climate change has warned of the high risk of loss of ecosystems and biodiversity and of impacts on waterways, coastal systems and forests if we exceed 1.5 degrees warming. Our existing global climate targets are inadequate.”
“But meaningful reform of our environmental legislation—to protect our land, sea and air—is vital to our international reputation, as well as to our national heritage. To that end, I commend the bill to the House.”
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that, in the near term, forests and terrestrial ecosystems, fresh water, coastal coral reefs, kelp and seagrass, and marine ecosystems are all at high or very high risk of biodiversity loss and that continued and accelerating sea level rises will submerge low-lying coastal ecosystems, with devastating implications for our Pacific neighbours. Our coral reefs, our wetlands, our bushland and our unique wildlife are at risk. We cannot have meaningful protections for our environment if we do not include safeguards for air quality. The world is watching. We've put our hand up for COP31, and it is a wonderful opportunity for us to demonstrate real commitment to global climate leadership and our value and strength in the region.”
“It was estimated that we lost 445 Australians to smoke related lung injury in that black summer alone. A warming climate will also lead to increased smog in summer. Droughts will lead to dust storms. Emissions and air pollution, smog and dust don't respect lines and borders on maps. They affect us all. Santos's addition of thousands of tonnes of the most damaging of all greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, unmeasured, unreported and unregulated is an immediate and emergent proof of the need for supervision and enforcement of air quality standards at a national level. The environmental impacts of greenhouse gas induced climate change are devastating.”
“Children and women in mining regions are especially vulnerable, with a higher risk of perinatal conditions and of respiratory, blood and immune diseases. Unconventional gas extraction, or fracking, is associated with a higher risk of hospitalisation of all courses and with circulatory, respiratory, blood and immune diseases—again, particularly affecting children. And, as a potent greenhouse gas, methane acts to speed up climate change, which results in an increase in extreme weather events, decreased agricultural productivity and an increase in the global burden of disease. Climate change will increase the pressure on air quality. Bushfires like those in 2019-20 expose huge areas of Australia to dangerous levels of smoke, which has a really significant impact on the air that we breathe.”
“Just this week in the Medical Journal of Australia , researchers have described the significant public health impacts of mining in this country. They found that exposure to agents released during mining operations such as cadmium, iron, manganese, zinc, arsenic and lead are associated with neoplastic—that's cancer—and non-neoplastic diseases in adults and children. Mining of lead is specifically associated with a decrease in fertility for men and with intellectual disability and impaired immune function for children. Asbestos mining is associated with higher morbidity and mortality due to respiratory and non-respiratory cancers. Recent analyses have a higher risk of severe respiratory and circulatory diseases in communities which are proximate to coalmines.”
“The likely impact on human health and the surrounding environment of this and other forms of air pollution by gas fracking and storage in the Northern Territory and other sites around Australia is a deeply serious concern. Methane is a volatile organic compound. Volatile organic compounds are associated with a range of health problems. They irritate the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, leading to exacerbations of lung disease like asthma and COPD. Long-term exposure to VOCs causes injury to the liver and to the kidneys. It increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and of cancer. Methane is the major precursor of ground level ozone, which we generally refer to as smog, which is a toxic air pollutant that causes chronic irritation of the lungs.”
“The matters of national environmental significance listed under the EPBC Act currently include land and water. They must be expanded to include air. The air we breathe affects every aspect of our health, our quality of life and our environment. The new EPBC Act has to establish air quality standards to protect public health, to prevent environmental degradation and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. The appalling revelations this week that huge quantities of hazardous methane have been leaking from a huge storage tank very close to Darwin for 20 years is all the demonstration that we need that Australia's environmental protections are failing.”
“They have to include a real commitment to the protection of our extraordinary cultural heritage, particularly with respect to that of Indigenous Australians, who represent the oldest continuing civilisation on this planet. Meaningful reform of the EPBC Act has to include the establishment of an environmental protection Australia as an independent regulator with power to oversee national environmental laws. It must include national environmental standards with more transparent and reliable data collection to inform community engagement planning, assessments and decisions and to direct adequate resources to agencies to enable faster, more transparent decision-making and monitoring. The Commonwealth environment protection framework must take an integrated approach to the environment.”
“This is why, in recent years, in the face of the escalating impacts of climate change and rapid loss of biodiversity, we have seen industry, community and environmental organisations all uniting to call on the Albanese government to deliver this once in a generation opportunity to reshape the laws around our environment and nature as a matter of urgency. These laws need to enable faster, more efficient and more transparent assessments to improve nature protection. They need to build greater confidence and trust within our communities, including within Indigenous groups, in decision-making around our land, air and waterways.”
“The Clean Energy Investor Group recently reported on major bottlenecks in environmental assessments under the EPBC Act, finding that many projects now wait more than two years for federal decisions—projects which might only take 18 months to build. The uncertainties of these approval processes can mean that there's no reliable pipeline of work for communities or for traineeships and apprenticeships in important and related industries. These bottlenecks are delaying the transmission projects which are required to support renewable energy projects and to facilitate the clean energy transition. These delays in EPBC reform have become the single biggest barrier to timely, environmentally responsible renewable energy development in Australia.”
“As the minister has said, it's very appropriate that we legislate to continue the critical role of the traditional owners in the decision-making processes around the management of their land. However, the House needs to note that this amendment is necessary only because the Albanese government has not yet addressed the broader reforms to the EPBC Act as it promised in its last term. The current Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is failing on all fronts. It does not adequately protect our environment, and its uncertain and unpredictable assessment and decision-making processes are hindering investment.”
“I rise to speak to this amendment to the EPBC Act. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025 extends the existing arrangements for management of several jointly managed Commonwealth reserves, the Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Booderee National Park—all of which are located on Aboriginal land. These reserves are managed by the Director of National Parks under a lease with Indigenous people and through a board of management with majority traditional owner management representation. Each of those boards of management is currently chaired by a traditional owner. The management plans for these reserves are about to expire, which is why we're addressing it with this amendment to the EPBC Act 1999.”
“If only politicians weren't responsible for our tax system—because rent-seeking corporate lobbyists, mindless fearmongering by oppositions and a media that makes a sport out of forcing politicians to promise no new taxes all make tax reform a poisoned chalice. Tax reform takes political courage, but the need for it is evident. We have to wait to see whether or not this parliament will put public interest ahead of politics and get on with that reform.”
“We could stop the practice of compounding the value of deductions, a questionable inflation of expenses to offset profits. A simpler and more robust approach would be to simply remove LNG from the PRRT and to apply to it a resource tax that meets the expectations of Australians, pays this country for the resources extracted and delivers revenue that can be used to supercharge the transition away from gas altogether. When a tax measure is failing, we should go back to the drawing board. Our tax system needs reform. It needs to reflect modern circumstances and deliver equity and social benefit. As a nation, we need to embrace the principles that the tax system should be flexible, it should be responsive and it should be fair. It should allow government to get on with the business of delivering those things for people.”
“But LNG projects have high upfront costs, and LNG producers structure their businesses to benefit from this concession. So, despite billions of dollars of our LNG being exported from this country, effectively no tax is being collected. The Albanese government's 2023 changes to the scheme were expected to raise more income, but they have fallen short. It's a massive failure of public policy. We're effectively giving our finite gas resources away for free to multinationals, who are making billions of dollars of profit at the expense of our climate and our environment. There are things that we could do immediately to make our tax system more equitable and more effective. We could ring fence fossil fuel projects to stop companies passing on losses from one project to offset profits on another.”
“When we introduced the petroleum resource rent tax in the 1980s to ensure Australians received a fair return from our non-renewable petroleum resources, we didn't foresee then how our energy landscape would evolve, with liquified natural gas now dominating our offshore petroleum sector. Despite Australia being the second-largest exporter of LNG globally, we have collected virtually no PRRT revenue for decades. Under the current PRRT framework, many LNG projects won't pay significant tax until the 2030s. The International Energy Agency predicts that, by the mid-2030s, the global demand for gas will drop off precipitously, so there'll be no tax revenue from these massive LNG exports. The PRRT is designed to tax profits only when projects become cash flow positive. This allows for upfront investment while capturing windfall gains.”
“We didn't anticipate then that, one day, billion-dollar professional sports codes would be paying their executives million-dollar salaries with profits made from gambling on those sports—while using those concessions to pay no tax. When a tax concession is no longer fit for purpose, we should change it. To encourage investment in housing, to boost the supply of rental accommodation, landlords were given capital gains tax concessions in 2000. We did not expect then that that would turn Australian homes into wealth creation schemes. When tax concessions deliver unintended consequences, we should abolish them.”
“I'd like to thank the member for Curtin for bringing this important matter to the House. It's clear that our tax system needs reform. It is not fit for purpose. Taxation is not just about revenue raising; it's an important social policy. If it's done well, it can have the heft to deliver equity and the agility to reduce harms and to enhance public good. But right now our tax system is not doing well. It's too complex. It includes historical measures, concessions and exemptions—and concessions on exemptions on measures—which are simply not achieving their aims. For example, amateur sports clubs were given tax-free charitable status in the 1950s to promote participation in sport.”
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. The government is currently undertaking a Gas Market Review, with the premise that we need new gas production for our domestic needs. However, only 16 per cent of Australian LNG was sold to the domestic market last year; the rest was exported. More than enough gas for our domestic needs is sold daily on the spot market and exported. Why is the government supporting more gas projects when we have more than enough already, and when will you intervene to protect our access to our own gas resources?”
“My question is for the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. The Santos Darwin LNG facility has been leaking massive amounts of methane for almost 20 years. Three federal bodies—NOPSEMA, CSIRO and the Clean Energy Regulator have known and done nothing. Under-reporting like this makes a mockery of the safeguard mechanism and of your claims about decreased emissions. Will you deny Santos any further approvals until it acts to rectify this longstanding act of environmental vandalism?”
“I particularly want to acknowledge the work of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Grandmothers for Refugees and the many community based organisations and legal advocates across Australia who have brought the gravity of this legislation to public attention and who continue to advocate for those rendered voiceless by systemic neglect and legal exclusion. Their unwavering commitment to justice, to compassion and to accountability strengthens our democracy. I do not accept that a vision of Australia where the rights of the individual are predicated on where they were born, and where the vulnerable can be denied fair treatment and shuttled across borders in silence is the Australia that we wish to represent, so I urge this parliament to reject this bill and to reaffirm its commitment to the rule of law.”
“Using a small island nation as a dumping ground for individuals that we don't want here is a disgraceful way to act. It makes Australia a Pacific bullyboy, buying our own piece of mind at the expense of a small and underresourced nation. This amendment risks placing Australia in breach of its binding commitments under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Our credibility abroad and our moral leadership are both diminished when we undermine the very human rights that we advocate for elsewhere.”
“The government claims that its memorandum of understanding with Nauru contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residency of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, and that Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru's long-term economic resilience. But the fact is that we know that refugees and people transferred to Nauru have experienced violence in the past. Just this month, the Age carried a report detailing how private security and community safety in Nauru are being overseen by associates of outlaw motorcycle gangs. Nauru is one of the world's smallest and most economically vulnerable countries. It has a population of fewer than 12,000. It is housed on an area of land which is smaller than the Tullamarine airport.”