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 know that two COVID-19 variants are currently active in Australia. A recent COVID wave affected more than 200 aged-care facilities. Most older Australians have not been immunised for six months or more. Does government investment in sovereign capability for medicine production domestically make sense? Yes, it does. Our pandemic experience has shown us the risks of global supply chain interruptions, and they've shown us the importance of building expertise and capacity for research and manufacturing onshore and for safeguarding our resources. Australia imports 90 per cent of its medicines. We have ongoing shortages of medicines for ADHD, for diabetes, for palliative care, for HRT, for antibiotics and more.”
“Australia's world-class health and medical research capacity, with which I am personally and particularly familiar, makes us an obvious location for world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing. During the pandemic, Moderna's vaccine development was the fastest ever seen globally. Moderna's mRNA vaccine for COVID saved millions of lives. Do we need to expand our vaccine manufacturing domestically? We clearly do. Right now, only one COVID-19 vaccine is available in Australia. That's Pfizer (COMIRNATY) JN.1. The Albanese government actually decided not to replenish supplies of Moderna mRNA vaccine in late 2024. Those unable to receive mRNA vaccines have been unable to access any form of COVID vaccine in Australia since July 2024, and this has caused a lot of distress to those people who are keen to access the Novavax vaccine.”
“We will never know the full extent of that waste, because the Morrison and Albanese governments have refused a royal commission into the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without those lessons, we will inevitably be less well prepared for the next pandemic. And so I'm moving this disallowance motion today in the national interest and in the interest of the health of Australians, the health of our economy and the health of the democratic institutions that safeguard the national public interest. I'm moving this motion in the interests of transparency so that a major decision of our government during the pandemic doesn't just slide through this place unnoticed and unquestioned. Do we welcome the Moderna facility in Australia—Moderna in Australia? Yes, we do.”
“It should be disallowed because it circumvents the standards and safeguards of Commonwealth procurement processes on the grounds of protecting human health when in fact it is to be applied to non-emergency medicines. There is a defined and accepted process for the procurement of medicines and medical treatments in this country. There is no possible justification for non-emergency vaccines sidestepping this process. The COVID-19 pandemic was the greatest trauma experienced by this country in this century. Thousands of Australians died. Our social and economic life was damaged. Tens of billions of dollars were wasted by the Morrison government on a poorly directed economic stimulus package and on wasteful and opaque spending on diagnostics, PPE and vaccines.”
“We now know—but only because of the tabling of this disallowable instrument by Senator Gallagher last October—that, as part of the Morrison-Hunt agreement, the government has created a streamlined vaccine procurement process exclusively for Moderna's pandemic and non-pandemic vaccines outside the National Immunisation Program. The need for pandemic preparedness is still front of mind for all Australians, but this financial arrangement is about more than just preparing ourselves for the next pandemic. It is a commercial leg-up for one company in what is a very competitive non-pandemic vaccine market. This arrangement should be revised to ensure a level playing field for the best Australian and global companies to research, develop and manufacture the best medicines for Australians in Australia.”
“It struck a hasty deal without the usual competitive tender so it would be able to announce that it was doing something, knowing full well that that facility would almost certainly be built too late to contribute significantly to the COVID-19 pandemic response. The terms of the deal were kept secret at the time. We now know that it is a multibillion dollar deal in which taxpayers paid for a facility which is fully owned by Moderna—a facility that has, as yet in 2025, failed to produce a single dose of vaccine for our domestic use.”
“I move: That item 12 of the Financial Framework (Supplementary Powers) Amendment (Health and Aged Care Measures No. 4) Regulations 2024 made under the Financial Framework (Supplementary Powers) Act 1997 on 24 October 2024 and presented to the House on 4 November 2024, be disallowed. I move this motion to disallow the instrument amending the Financial Framework (Supplementary Powers) Act 1997, referred to as the Moderna partnership, tabled by the Minister for Finance in the Senate and then this House on 28 October 2024. The Morrison government struck a deal with Moderna in May 2021 to build a facility in Australia for the domestic production of new vaccines. The Morrison government had failed to procure COVID-19 vaccines in a timely manner. It had lost the vaccine race.”
“Too many people—far too many people—are falling through the cracks. We have an urgent need for a more equitable and integrated mental health care system which addresses both financial and geographic barriers to mental health care for Australians of all ages. Only through systemic reform and sustained investment can Australia build a mental health care system that truly meets the needs of its people.”
“This has to include investment in early intervention, especially in schools and in primary care settings. It should guarantee timely and affordable access to mental health care by boosting funding and training for community based services, and it should include better integration across public and private sectors. We should establish targets, conduct robust evaluations and adapt our programs based on that evidence. We should ensure culturally safe care, particularly for Indigenous communities, and we have to bolster education and training of our mental health workforce. We have too few psychologists and psychiatrists, but we're not yet addressing those workforce shortages with clear and substantial policy commitments. Since the creation of the NDIS, many state based mental health and early intervention services have disappeared.”
“If we can support someone with mild or moderate mental illness early, we will prevent their progression to a psychosocial disability. If we support those with a disability adequately, we can keep them in the community, not in an emergency department or in a psychiatric facility. We need more than investment; we need integration. We need reform that connects our health, mental health and disability systems. We need to respond to that unmet need report. We need to deliver foundational supports and community mental health services, and we have to land meaningful, effective NDIS reform. I speak in support of the many mental health advocates who are urging the federal government to coordinate a whole-of-government response to the mental health crisis.”
“Last year, the National Mental Health Commission found that one in five Australians had delayed or avoided seeking mental health care because of its cost. Australians living with mental health challenges experience social disadvantage, unstable housing, isolation and poor physical health, which impacts their ability to function, to care for themselves and to participate in society. Those individuals deserve support, dignity and understanding, but the last NDIS report found that applicants with a psychosocial disability were accepted to the NDIS only 23 per cent of the time, compared to 79 per cent across all disability types. The Productivity Commission has found that mental ill-health costs our economy $220 billion a year. This is a false economy.”
“Public mental health services typically respond only to high-risk cases. There are only 58 acute adolescent mental health inpatient beds in Victoria; only four of those are in regional settings. Headspace is a trusted entry point for young Australians, but analyses of its model are unfortunately quite underwhelming, and it doesn't cover the missing middle—those young people who are too sick for headspace but not sick enough for hospital care. The Albanese government has halved the number of psychology sessions funded under the Better Access scheme. It has not yet replaced those services. In 2023, an analysis of psychosocial supports outside the NDIS found that more than 490,000 Australians with moderate and severe mental health needs weren't getting the support that they needed. That's more than the population of the ACT.”
“I thank the member for Griffith for raising this very important issue. Almost one in two Australians experience mental illness in their lifetimes. While young people are disproportionately affected by poor mental health, people from all ages can have it, and all of them deserve and should receive support and treatment. But Australia's mental health system is marked by fragmentation and inequity, and we have a government which last week neglected health entirely at its economic roundtable. Mental Health Australia and the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling have found that communities with the highest mental health needs in this country—those in regional and remote areas, low-income households and single-parent families—are often the most underserved by services.”
“We will lose talented individuals who can't afford to work for free and who have to defer their studies, go part time or fail to complete their studies. This is a short-sighted, tragic false economy. I call on the government to expand the Commonwealth Prac Payment scheme to include all care-sector students, regardless of their discipline. Let us recognise the value of students' work and the cost of their training, and let's build a system that supports every student who chooses to care for others.”
“It can result in lower superannuation balances and less security in retirement. The WEET suggested that the government should support equitable access to education and skills building. It suggested that the government should remove those disincentives and inequities that perpetuate occupational gender segregation and sustained pay and wealth gaps. The current settings for paid prac placements do not do that. This is not just a matter of fairness for women; it is a matter of national interest. Australia faces critical shortages in its healthcare and veterinary services. We need more graduate in these fields, not fewer, but we continue to ask students to pay for the privilege of being, effectively, exploited. While we do that, we will drive them away from their studies or slow their progression.”
“I've heard their stories time and time again. They are stories of anxiety and sadness, of worry and of frustration—stories which reflect the chilling effect of placement poverty. Unpaid placements push women into debt. They can delay their graduation and they can limit their career choices. They worsen gender inequities before women even have the opportunity to enter the workforce. This fact has been recognised time and time again. In fact, the government's own Women's Economic Equality Taskforce found that women are more likely to study or train in areas that attract debt or that require unpaid placements to qualify and that this creates inequality from the start of their careers. That inequality can have lifelong implications. It can include an inability to escape or recover from violence, homelessness or housing insecurity.”
“They too have to pay the cost of insurance, registration, equipment, accommodation and transport to their prac placements, while still often having to pay rent in the city, pay the cost of their child care and sort out the care of their dependents. This exclusion is not an oversight by the Albanese government. It was deliberate, and it perpetuates structural inequities in our workforce. The fact is that fields like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and veterinary science are female dominated. Women make up 74 per cent of students in health related degrees in Australia. These are the very students who are being asked to work for free—to train for free—for months on end, while they have to juggle their rent, their cost of living, and sometimes their care of children or other dependents.”
“This initiative, which was announced earlier this year, was a welcome recognition of the financial hardship faced by students undertaking mandatory unpaid placements in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. These students will now receive $331 per week during those placements, and that support is long overdue. However, the scheme continues to exclude students in other care-sector disciplines—medicine, allied health and veterinary science—even though those students face the same, if not even greater, burdens of unpaid placements. Those students also have to complete hundreds—sometimes thousands—of hours of practical training, often in rural or remote locations and often at the expense of their paid work at home.”
“I thank the member for Brisbane for this motion which raises the importance of economic equality for Australian women. In recent decades we've seen greater workforce participation, higher levels of educational attainment for Australian women, a reduction in the gender pay gap and the narrowing of the retirement income gap. Achievements of the Albanese government that I advocated for and supported in the 47th parliament included expansion of paid parental leave, superannuation on PPL and increased wages in female dominated workforces. All of these were really significant moves towards gender equity in our workforce. There are, however, persisting and significant gender inequities in the Commonwealth Prac Payment scheme.”
“A key advocacy group founded in 2016 by Sharna Bremner, End Rape on Campus Australia has now shut down. It did the thing that it was aiming to do: it advocated itself out of business. The women of Australia thank it for its work. There are many others who've worked on this issue for many years and whose achievements and contributions should be recognised in this place as we pass this legislation, including Renee Carr and her Fair Agenda; the STOP Campaign, including Camille Schloeffel; Dr Alison Henry; and so many others. For far too many students—for far too many women—this legislation comes too late. But those of us in this House now commend this government for acting now as it has to prevent further harm to those who come after. I commend this bill to the House.”
“Universities will be required to investigate formal reports of gender based violence even where they occur at colleges and other forms of on-campus accommodation. There are some complexities to this, but it's important that it's included. This legislation has been developed over some months by experts in the field, and they have assured us that they feel that if it is properly funded and enforced it will function as intended. It will deliver meaningful change for women on our university campuses and for all victims-survivors of gender based violence. It's particularly important that, at this point, we acknowledge the brave victims-survivors and other advocates who fought for this change for decades and who have made it possible. In 2022, I had the great privilege of meeting in this house with representatives from End Rape on Campus.”
“They will have to action and resolve reports in a timely manner. They will have to provide necessary academic support and adjustments to victim-survivors, and they will have to train their staff to respond appropriately to disclosures. Very importantly, non-disclosure agreements will be prohibited unless they are specifically are requested by victim-survivors. These are all things that students should have been able to take for granted for years, but we know that they've been lacking from far too many institutions. It's important that the code specifically addresses safety in student accommodation, including forms of accommodation affiliated with universities but not controlled by them.”
“The code will also ensure that, when that violence does occur, both students and staff have access to the very best supports possible—supports which are trauma informed and ensure that students are still able to go on and complete their educational goals. For far too long student victim-survivors have been left without the support they need for their safety on campus or in exam spaces, and we know that many have dropped out or failed their studies as a result. Some have faced harmful actions from their universities, which have compounded the harm of the primary assault. Victim-survivors will now be protected by a code which will set clear and meaningful standards that universities have to meet. They will have to provide safe environments. They will have to provide timely safety support.”
“Where universities fail to meet the standards for student safety, the unit will have the power to enforce financial penalties. This national code therefore complements the National Student Ombudsman by filling an important gap. We can't have a system that allows universities to tolerate harm until someone complains about their actions. This code will finally enforce meaningful standards that universities will have to meet to support victim-survivors and other students. The code requires that university leaders make whole-of-organisation plans for evidence based prevention of gender based violence plans and for education and training of staff and students. This will include consultation with individuals with lived experience of gender based violence.”
“This code arose after consultation with victim-survivor advocates, students, the higher education sector, the student accommodation sector, gender based violence experts, states and territories and relevant Australian government agencies. It will create, for the first time, meaningful and detailed standards that universities have to meet in order to adequately address gender based violence. These standards will be enforced by a specialist unit in the Department of Education, which will provide guidance, education and advice to support universities and other providers in understanding their legal obligations under the code and will exercise a significant range of powers to monitor, investigate and respond to noncompliance with the code and with the measures in the bill. It will report annually to both houses of parliament.”
“The government had to act to reduce the incidence of gender based violence in higher education and to establish national standards and requirements for higher education providers to prevent and respond to gender based violence. In late 2024 this house passed legislation to establish the National Student Ombudsman as an avenue for individuals to escalate complaints against higher education providers on issues like gender based violence. This bill and the companion legislation before the House are the next steps in the establishment and enforcement of a national higher education code to prevent and respond to gender based violence.”
“Our institutions have come up with ineffectual and underpoliced measures to try and tick a box on their responsibilities—schemes like Consent Matters, which was called out by both students and experts as being unhelpful and ineffective. A recent Senate inquiry was also critical of the failure of the higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, which confessed to systemic under-reporting and inaction on sexual violence on our campuses. In recent years a number of courageous individuals have come forth to bring attention to the extent and severity of gender based violence on our campuses. It's become clear that universities simply can't be trusted to act on this issue without oversight and enforcement by an external regulator.”
“Fewer than one in three of those who were brave enough to come forward were satisfied with how their university handled their complaint. More recent research has shown that 40 per cent of female international students have experienced at least one form of sexual violence since arriving in this country. That is an absolute disgrace. At the same time, the National Tertiary Education Union found that almost one in three university staff has also been sexually harassed in the workplace. The responses of many universities to these sorts of complaints of sexual assault and harassment have long been deemed inadequate or inappropriate. Students have told us that they have been disbelieved or blamed and that their confidentiality has been breached in the process of any investigations that might have been undertaken.”
“After the landmark 2017 C hange the course report, there were more reports from groups like End Rape on Campus Australia and from the Stop Campaign which described sexual violence, hazing, bullying, intimidation and inadequate support for victims-survivors of gendered violence at our universities across the country. The 2021 National Student Safety Survey found that one in six students had been sexually harassed and one in 20 sexually assaulted at our universities. Those rates were much higher in women and in gender-diverse students. It's likely that that data underrepresents the reality. Only 5.6 per cent of students who took part in the survey and who had reported being sexually assaulted had actually made a formal report to their institution.”
“All women who have attended tertiary facilities in Australia know someone who's been raped on a university campus. It's well past time that our government intervened to create stronger measures to combat gender based violence on university campuses, and this legislation is a really important part of that work. The Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) Bill 2025 comes after investigations by groups like the National Union of Students and the Australian Human Rights Commission—numerous investigations which have consistently identified really concerning levels of sexual assault and harassment in Australian universities.”
“My question is for the minister for ageing, health, disability and the NDIS. The Medical Research Future Fund was set up to be a $20 billion fund which was to disburse $1 billion a year. It's now worth $24 billion, but you're spending only $650 million a year while our researchers are struggling with cost pressures and geopolitical uncertainties. Will you release this funding? Will you help our medical researchers achieve their potential and work for the benefit of all Australians?”
“So I call on the government to recognise this crisis. We owe it to the next generation to do better for our students. If we invest in them now, we invest in the future wellbeing of all Australians.”
“Some students are being forced to choose between continuing their studies and eating. Some are sleeping in their cars during placements, and that's why they're having to defer or go part time unnecessarily. This issue places immense pressure on students who are dedicating themselves to careers in the care industry, education and community service. These are professions which are the backbone of our society. These are the people who will care for Australians in our hospitals, our classrooms, our clinics and our community centres. If we don't support them during their studies, we risk losing them before they even enter the workforce. Education should be an opportunity, not a financial burden. For far too many, mandatory placements mean worry, stress and anxiety, not participation, engagement, fulfilment and learning.”
“She has to cover the cost of her professional registration, her working-with-children and police checks and her travel and accommodation, all while being limited by her university to just six hours a week in her part-time job. Another student, who is studying social work, described the exhausting process of trying to secure placements. He said, 'It's highly competitive. It's far from home. My university offers little support, but I'm still required to pay for the unit as if it were a regular class.' The stories I've heard from students in Kooyong are not isolated. Every time I raise this issue on social media, my comments and DMs are flooded with hundreds of stories from students around Australia, each reinforcing that placement poverty is real and that it is hurting our future workforce.”
“A few weeks ago in my electorate of Kooyong, I sat down for coffee with a group of students undertaking mandatory placements as part of their tertiary studies. Among them were future psychologists, veterinarians, social workers and educators. Each shared their story, some with quiet resilience, some with visible frustration, all with a common theme of their wanting and needing more support for their prac placements. These placements often require hundreds of hours of hard work. While the changes effective from 1 July mean that students in education and social services are now supported, many in the care sector are not. One student was undertaking a PhD in psychology.”
“We shouldn't make laws that prolong and increase their debt burden. That is what we are doing today. HECS debts are stopping young people from starting degrees. They're preventing them from getting home loans. They're causing them to put off starting families at a time when our birthrate is lower than it's ever been before. We need to make degrees cheaper and we should start by scrapping the job-ready graduates scheme. We need to change indexation to make it more fair. We need to help young people complete practical training in the courses that they love so that we can benefit from the skills they bring to our healthcare system. We need to show some generosity. We will all benefit so much in return. I brought to the House today an amendment to those ends.”
“It is outrageous that payments made during the year by these graduates are not taken into account before that indexation is applied. We would not put up with this on our mortgages. Why do we expect graduates to put up with it? It is a sneaky, unnecessary cash grab which is costing Australian graduates $175 million every year. We need fairer, more equitable and more systematic higher education contribution schemes. Young people are facing a housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis, and now we've given them the additional burden of making their education too expensive. We need to align the cost of education with the earning potential of graduates. We have to ensure that Australians aren't saddled with a lifetime of debt, because they've worked to gain skills from which we will all benefit.”
“I join with the allied health professionals' association, the Australian Medical Students' Association, the AMA, the National Union of Students, the Health Services Union, the Australian Veterinary Association and the Pharmacy Guild in calling on the government to immediately extend support for compulsory prac placements to all care-sector students. Finally, HECS loans are indexed annually on 1 June, using a formula based on either the CPI or the wage price index for the previous year, and that ensures that debts maintain their real value over time. The fact that the tax office doesn't adjust the balance owing until after a tax return is filed, after indexation is applied, means that many graduates see their debts increase, despite their very best efforts to pay them off.”
“There is no possible justification for excluding students from other care disciplines at a time when we have persistent and significant workforce shortages in virtually all healthcare disciplines. It is a false economy to force students to defer their studies or to go part time to cover the cost of their prac placements, knowing that, in many such cases, those decisions are followed by noncompletion. We're already investing in those students. We need the skill sets that they are acquiring in all good faith. Placement poverty is exacerbating workforce shortages in many key professions, like psychology and radiography. By worsening skills shortages, we are driving up the out-of-pocket costs for things like psychology support, mental health care and medical imaging.”
“During those placements, which can be hundreds of kilometres from their homes, they have to pay for travel, additional accommodation, uniforms, equipment, professional registration and insurances, not to mention their loss of income, plus or minus childcare costs. Those placements are much more burdensome for students from rural and regional settings and for those from First Nations and vulnerable backgrounds. They are more challenging for women, who are more likely to have dependants and other care responsibilities. The Commonwealth Prac Payment program, which commenced on 1 July, was a response to the recommendation of the Universities Accord that we provide financial support for the nursing, care and teaching professions. But it is currently limited to students of nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work.”
“The minister has suggested repeatedly that the Australian Tertiary Education Commission will provide advice on student fees, but it will not be able to change them before 2027 at the earliest. The minister could do that tomorrow. In 2021, the Labor caucus called the job-ready graduates scheme 'inequitable, pernicious and perverse'. Even the Liberals are now admitting that the job-ready graduates scheme is an appalling policy which should be scrapped immediately. Prac placements are another burden. Optometry students and medical imaging students have to undertake a full year of full-time, unpaid training. Physios, occupational therapists, podiatrists, speech pathologists, vets and others have to complete a thousand hours or more of unpaid placements.”
“Students of those disciplines are still accruing massive debts—$50,000 for a basic degree and $85,000 for common combinations. The Australian Historical Association said on 24 July: In an era of severe international turmoil, climate crisis, rising disinformation, and declining trust in democratic principles, a higher education in subjects that stress global knowledges, reasoned debate, and civic literacy is paramount. Job-ready Graduates did not align with national priorities or with projected skills shortages. It left students with debts which were vastly disproportionate to their future earning potential. The PBO has estimated that it's already increased student debt by more than $10 billion, and that is going to continue to increase massively until it is reversed.”
“The Parliamentary Budget Office has calculated that, for those starting careers with incomes below the repayment thresholds, particularly women, repayment could take 40 years or more. Some young students are signing on for what is effectively a lifetime of debt, and they don't understand that when they take on those degrees. University isn't what it used to be. Domestic enrolments have plateaued, dropout rates are historically high, debts of more than $150,000 at graduation are no longer rare and women are taking longer to pay back their HECS debts—so they end up paying more. Meanwhile, the government has still not unwound the job-ready graduates scheme, which, five years ago, doubled the cost of arts, law and business degrees overnight.”
“Under this bill, the income threshold for compulsory HELP repayments will increase to $67,000. Repayments will be calculated only on that portion of the income which is above the $67,000 threshold rather than the total income. This marginal repayment system will result in lower compulsory repayments for everyone who earns less than $180,000. The problem is that that higher threshold and the marginal repayment rates mean that, although we won't any longer have that paradox where graduates who are earning pay rises sometimes see their take-home pay decrease, more graduates will find themselves repaying less than the annual indexation on their HECS balance. As a result, their debt will increase each year. They will effectively be locked into a debt treadmill.”
“I've heard from or spoken with many of you—students, graduates, parents, grandparents, academics, educators and Australians distressed that a system designed to increase access to tertiary education has been reverse-engineered to the point where it is an active disincentive to start studies. It's become a burden around the neck of young people and older people saddled with life-changing debt. This legislation will lift some of that burden for Australians. It's very clever politics but it is not ideal policy. The 20 per cent cut is not well-targeted. It will deliver major benefits to recent graduates but give much less to current students or earlier graduates. It gives nothing to future students or those who have already completed their repayments. It will help those people who have bigger debts more.”
“There are 2.9 million Australians with a HECS debt, and this bill, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, will reduce their debts by 20 per cent. As a result of this bill, every single one of the 1.2 million Australians who are currently repaying their student loans will pay less per year. I wish to congratulate and thank the 290,000 Australians who signed my HECS petition to the education minister last year. You contributed to this change. You spoke, and your voice was heard by your elected representatives and by the government. You did this. I also want to thank and congratulate the Minister for Education for responding to the voices of hundreds of thousands of Australians. Our democracy is strong.”
“In our community, he was known as a principled man who had the courage to speak truth to power. His friends and colleagues described him as a man of great warmth, wit and humility. Petro Georgiou changed Australia for the better. May we honour him in this place not only in memory but in action by never forgetting the power of principle and compassion in public life”
“On behalf of the people of Kooyong, I wish to honour the life and legacy of my predecessor, who was the member for Kooyong from 1994 to 2010, Petro Georgiou, AO. As a senior adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Petro was instrumental in the introduction of multicultural policies, the acceptance of Vietnamese refugees to this country after the fall of Saigon and the founding of SBS. They are initiatives that continue to enrich our society today. In his parliamentary career, Petro stood against racism, against mandatory detention and against the harsh treatment of asylum seekers. He often challenged his own party, the Liberal Party, to uphold the values of fairness and of humanity. He fought for reforms to draconian antiterrorism legislation and protections for Indigenous Australians.”
“This amendment essentially asks the government to change the timing of HECS indexation, which is unfair; to extend the support for paid practical placements to all students in the care sector; to reduce the cost of degrees, particularly by immediately reversing the job-ready graduates scheme; and to look at education more as an investment in our future and not as a cost to the people of Australia.”
“I will speak to this bill in more detail later today, and I thank the government for the opportunity to do that. I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name: 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: (1) notes that many degrees have increased in cost well above CPI, resulting in excessive HELP debts which place additional financial burden on Australians in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis; (2) calls on the Government to: (a) calculate HELP debt indexation after the due date for individual tax returns each year; and (b) immediately reform the failed Job Ready Graduates Program, which has been the primary driver of increased student debt; and (3) asks that the government recognise the importance of practical placements in care sector degrees, but also the cost and practical challenges associated with rural and regional placements, by: (a) extending practical placement payments to students of all care sector professions including medical, allied health, mental health, pharmacy, and veterinary sciences, who are required to undertake such placements as mandatory components of their courses; (b) reducing both the student and Government funding contribution for units that are delivered as practical placements; and (c) allowing practical placements undertaken by Australian students overseas to be recognised as course credit by their Australian higher education provider".”