Sophie Scamps
Mackellar · Independent · Australia
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Every year, more than 400 Australians die by suicide linked to gambling. That's more than 1,000 lives lost since the Murphy report was handed down.”
“I rise to speak about absolute legend Charlie Verco, the courageous 24-year-old Mackellar local and Newport surf club member who paddled towards the jaws of a shark to save Leah Stewart, who was being attacked at Coogee Beach on 13 June.”
“Charlie's actions reflect the very best of our community and the values that define Australia's surf lifesaving culture. On behalf of the northern beaches community and everyone across Australia, I'd like to thank Charlie for his courage, selflessness and unwavering commitment to serving others.”
“Music, film publishing and broadcasting already operate on licensed use of content at scale. The Copyright Act provides a clear and workable framework. Copyright is not the enemy of innovation; it is what allows creators to earn a living from their talent and their work.”
“This proposal is also reportedly linked to discussions with major AI tech firms about data centre investment in Australia. Investment must never come at the cost of Australian rights. The Albanese government must not sell out Australians to big tech.”
“Right now, we are at a critical crossroad for Australia's creative arts industry, one that may deeply harm this invaluable sector. At the recent AI summit in Sydney, the chair of the Tech Council of Australia, Scott Farquhar, called for copyright reform to encourage AI investment.”
The complete record
Every one of 506 lines we hold for Sophie Scamps, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 11.
“When I'm not in Canberra, I love being out and about in Mackellar. It really is the best part of the job. We have more than 500 community organisations on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Many of them are volunteer run. All of them are powered by big hearts and tons of generosity. Groups like Zonta Northern Beaches, the Women's Resilience Centre, Computer Pals, Sailability Pittwater, Saltwater Veterans, the Men's Wellbeing Collective, choirs, Scouts, RSL sub-branches and many more. They are the quiet achievers of our community. They step in when someone needs help. They create connection and vibrancy and represent the true spirit of Mackellar. Over the past two weeks, I've been out and about in the Mackellar community and I've seen that spirit up close.”
“This bill provides a flexible framework for the minister to determine coverage areas, obligations, provider standards, benchmarks and rules in relation to the universal outdoor mobile obligation. The bill will facilitate funding for the UOMO from the public-interest telecommunications services special account, which contains a mix of government appropriations and telecommunications industry levy funds. Part 2 of the bill will insert broad new powers to make standards, rules and benchmarks for carriers and carriage service providers in relation to mobile telecommunications services. My hope is that this bill will hold the telecommunications providers to account and that the communities of Coasters Retreat, Mackerel Beach, The Basin and Narrabeen will finally have the mobile phone reception coverage that they deserve and can rely on.”
“Like many others on Ocean Street, Narrabeen restaurant manager Anika Tolland reports that call quality is poor and unreliable across multiple carriers. This not only impacts the day-to-day operations of her business but also raises significant safety concerns, should an emergency occur. Last year, during a fire in an electrical box, the restaurant lost power and phone access. Because their wi-fi was down, Anika was unable to make calls from her mobile due to the poor reception. In an emergency, this delay could have been critical. It is vitally important that these telecommunication issues are urgently resolved for the communities of Coasters Retreat, Mackerel Beach and Narrabeen.”
“A cable connection with fibre to the node as NBN is what residents are asking for. This would bring these locations into line with other western foreshore communities in Pittwater who are provided this solution to ensure reliable communications. And it's not just the communities of Coasters Retreat and Mackerel Beach who are struggling with mobile phone coverage. Ocean Street in Narrabeen, where my office is actually located, also has ongoing poor mobile phone reception. Despite numerous upgrades to 3G, 4G and 5G, the area still lacks consistent phone coverage. This is despite the already established universal service obligation that aims to ensure all Australians, no matter where they live, have reasonable access to essential telecommunications services.”
“I recently saw firsthand the devastation that the latest storm and torrential rain had caused at Mackerel Beach, including a landslide that damaged or destroyed homes. This is proof that reliable mobile phone reception and internet access is more important than ever at Mackerel Beach, Coasters Retreat and the Basin. I hate to say it, but this situation seems to be history repeating itself. Residents of Cottage Point in my electorate fought for over 20 years to get reliable mobile phone coverage and internet access through the installation of a mobile phone base station. This was despite the death of resident David Berry in 2019 after his wife was unable to call an ambulance because their landline was down and there was no mobile reception. This should never have happened, and it should never happen again.”
“Due to the high risk of bushfire in this area and the health issues of a community with only water access, high-speed and reliable connections for residents, the rural fire service, marine rescue and paramedics attending incidents at Coasters Retreat, the Basin and Mackerel Beach are essential. They could be a matter of life and death. Despite applying to the Peri-Urban Mobile Program that delivered new or upgraded mobile phone infrastructure targeting mobile coverage and reception issues in 2024, this was not successful as the area was not deemed a priority compared to other areas. It beggars belief that these mobile reception problems at these locations have not been deemed a priority. Increased extreme weather events across Australia also demonstrate the need for reliable mobile services during emergencies.”
“Of huge concern is that there are residents at Coasters Retreat and Mackerel Beach who have medical issues. A resident with Parkinson's disease stated that, when mobile reception is out of service, it becomes difficult to organise medical appointments and access support for the condition. A registered clinical psychologist who provides psychological sessions via FaceTime, WhatsApp and Skype is often hugely compromised due to the reception issues. The Basin camping ground is popular for daytrippers and overnight campers. On average, the rangers require emergency medical assistance at the Basin weekly from October to early May and monthly for the rest of the year. Poor mobile phone connectivity is exacerbated when there are lots of boats anchored in surrounding bays, with both Mackerel Beach and Coasters Retreat severely impacted.”
“Twenty survey respondents said they have landlines for emergency purposes but that the call quality is often so crackly you cannot hear the caller, particularly after heavy rain. Another resident reported that frequent submarine cable and in-ground copper wire faults caused too many service interruptions and, as a result, they discontinued the landline after an outage of around two months. Coasters Retreat and Mackerel Beach residents are people who work from home, run businesses or are school or university students. One resident who is supposed to deliver online university classes said that the internet connection is rarely good enough to be able to do this consistently. Another resident at Mackerel Beach said that they sometimes have to use the payphone at Mackerel Beach to carry out business calls.”
“Poor Telstra mobile connection renders hotspotting to a mobile phone or a dongle unsuccessful, with one resident saying that, with cloud cover or storms, there is no internet. Another resident, with Sky Muster, said that it's very slow and unreliable and that, when they're trying to work from home, there's absolutely no consistency for video calls. Another said that, while it's okay for streaming and emailing, stormy, windy weather causes it to drop out and wi-fi calling via mobile is useless. A user of Starlink said that it does deliver acceptable speeds. However, it is costly to install and costly to maintain, plus it will not work for everyone at Coasters Retreat due to the topography and tree obstructions to satellites. While it works fine for emails and most streaming, it's not acceptable for video calling.”
“In arguing their case, the Coasters Association conducted community surveys with residents from Coasters Retreat, Mackerel Bay and the Basin. They wanted to ascertain their experiences and the extent of the telecommunications issues faced by them. Coasters Retreat has 52 households, Mackerel Beach has 117, and every year hundreds of people holiday at the Basin camping ground. The survey results show that residents have a mixture of NBN via Sky Muster satellite, Starlink satellite, ADSL, internet via dongle or mobile, or Telstra 4G with specific antenna. Some of the issues residents identified included that, with ADSL, only one person can use it at any one time. A resident who runs a photography business and transfers large files has frequent dropouts or finds the internet doesn't work at all.”
“Today I rise to speak in support of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025. This bill establishes a regulatory framework for a universal outdoor mobile obligation so that mobile providers ensure that mobile coverage is reasonably available outdoors to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. This bill will be music to the ears of Mackellar residents who live in Coasters Retreat and Mackerel Bay, who have seeking better mobile coverage for many years. These communities have long asked for an underwater NBN cable connection, just like those of other western foreshore communities in Pittwater, in the northern beaches of Sydney. These communities include places like Scotland Island, Dangar Island, Lovett Bay, Taylor's Bay and Elvina Bay.”
“The recruitment process would require independent selection panels to publicly advertise the relevant position, run a competitive selection process and shortlist at least three candidates for the minister to choose from. An addition to this new version of the bill would also restrict politicians and their staff members from being shortlisted for six months after leaving political employment or 18 months in the case of a minister's portfolio areas. In short, this bill would ensure that it's what you know, not who you know, that gets you the job. Australians deserve a public appointments system they can trust. I commend this bill to the House, and I cede the remainder of my time to the member for Calare.”
“And they affect all of us, because the people in these positions make decisions that affect us directly, including on welfare, visas, safety, health, education, the environment and the economy. This bill is about protecting the integrity of those decisions. Drafted in partnership with the Centre for Public Integrity, this bill would see the creation of a public appointments commissioner and independent departmental selection panels. The appointment process would be overseen by a parliamentary joint committee on appointments, which would have no more than 50 per cent representation from the government. The recruitment process for all major Commonwealth public appointments would be transparent and independent.”
“But, instead of acting on this review and implementing legislation, the government put forward something entirely different: the Australian Government Appointments Framework. This so-called framework consists of seven dot points, takes up about half a page, is non-binding, uses language so vague it provides no real protection at all and includes no mandatory requirements. The people of Australia have every right to feel let down. Political appointments have deep and enduring impacts on the functioning of our institutions and public confidence in them. They erode public trust. They weaken the capability and efficiency of institutions. They can shatter the morale of public servants.”
“It also gave this damning assessment: … too often the practice in recent years has been to appoint friends of the Government to boards, either as a reward for … loyalty or to ensure alignment with government priorities and all too often these appointments have looked like forms of patronage and nepotism that should have no place in the modern Australian society. 'Patronage', 'nepotism' and 'reward for loyalty'—when these words define an appointment system, there is obviously something deeply wrong. The Briggs review set out a straightforward fix: legislate an independent, standard public-sector selection process for board appointments with commonsense safeguards like cooling-off periods for former ministers and political staffers.”
“It was requested over and over again here in this chamber, in the Senate, by freedom-of-information applications and by orders for the production of documents in the Senate. Finally, under growing pressure and media attention, it was quietly released just before Christmas last year. Perhaps the reason for this delay was that the Briggs review does not mince words. It gave a scathing assessment of the public board appointment process, calling the current system 'not fit for purpose' and 'failing the Australian people'.”
“When I first stood here back in 2023 to present this bill, the government responded by saying that they were dealing with the jobs-for-mates culture by announcing a review into public board appointments, otherwise known as the Briggs review. But, far from fixing the problem, it has functioned largely to kick the can down the road, not due to the integrity of the review but because of the government's handling and response to it. The Minister for the Public Service, Katy Gallagher, on announcing the review, promised that the report would be made public as soon as it was completed, in line with the government's commitment to transparency. Yet, instead, the government withheld the review from the public for 27 months.”
“Controversy surrounding public appointments has continued to flourish, including around the appointment of a trade union leader to the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund board, despite not being shortlisted or put through a formal due diligence process, and the head of the Office of National Intelligence came directly to that role from the Prime Minister's office. Several public institutions, including the Centre for Disease Control, the National Reconstruction Fund and the National Environmental Protection Agency have been newly established with no legislated or merit based selection process for their heads. The government has failed to act on the jobs-for-mates culture in Canberra, which is why I'm reintroducing this bill today.”
“Since first introducing this bill, several Labor stalwarts have been appointed to key roles, including the lead of the review of Australia's Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, the Secretary of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the Chair of the Net Zero Economy Authority. While each of these may well have been the best person for the job, the absence of a legislated, transparent appointments process means that the public simply has no assurance of that. Importantly, even the perception that an appointment is political can be enough to erode trust in government, and, when trust in government is low, social cohesion suffers.”
“Strangely, the COVID commission developed and strongly pushed for the so-called gas led recovery. Additionally, the former Administrative Appeals Tribunal, one of our nation's most important institutions underpinning our democracy, had to be abolished and recreated after being heavily stacked with former Liberal MPs, candidates and staffers and other supporters. In fact, the Australia Institute's research shows that, under the Morrison government, up to 40 per cent of plum positions at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal were deemed to be political appointments. Following its election in 2022, the Albanese Labor government spoke passionately about its commitment to transparency and promised to reform the jobs-for-mates culture in Canberra. But, four years on, little has changed.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Three years ago, when I first introduced this bill, Australians were calling for an end to the culture of entrenched cronyism and political patronage that pervades appointments to major public roles in this country. This culture weakens our institutions and undermines trust in government. Australians had had a gutful of seeing highly paid, powerful public appointments seemingly handed out as captains' picks by ministers as rewards to political allies and/or to ensure alignment with government priorities. For example, the Morrison coalition government, which was strongly opposed to action on climate change, had appointed former fossil-fuel executives to chair both the Climate Change Authority and the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission.”
“The consultation paper canvassed key options around junk food advertising, including restricting unhealthy food advertising on broadcast media between 5.30 am and 11 pm, including on TV, in radio, in cinema, on podcasts and on streaming services. It also raised the idea of restricting all online marketing for unhealthy food products and banning outdoor media, including government owned assets, within 750 metres of schools and along major transport corridors. The South Australian government has already implemented a mandatory ban on unhealthy food and drink advertising across all government owned transit assets, including buses, trains and trams. Globally, more than 40 countries have acted to regulate junk food advertising. Australia is lagging behind while unhealthy food marketing continues to target our children. Let's get busy.”
“It seems just plain wrong that corporations have been given free rein to target our kids with the advertising of junk food that is making them sick. Corporations are getting rich by making our children sick. In 2024, the government commissioned a feasibility study led by the University of Wollongong to examine policy options to restrict unhealthy food marketing to children. My understanding is that the study's findings were delivered to the Department of Health and Aged Care four months ago. I urge the government to release this study so we can get on with the next steps in protecting our children's health.”
“That's why, in 2023, I introduced the healthy kids advertising bill to remove junk food ads from TV and radio between 6 am and 9.30 pm and to place an outright ban on paid junk food marketing on social media and other online environments. This policy is strongly backed by the Australian Medical Association, Dietitians Australia, Diabetes Australia, the Cancer Council, Food for Health Alliance, the Public Health Association of Australia and key medical colleges including the Royal Australian colleges of physicians and of GPS. Parents regularly raise their concerns with me about predatory junk food marketing directed at their children. And research from the Australia Institute shows two-thirds of Australians support regulating unhealthy food marketing.”
“This relentless marketing is not accidental; it is a sophisticated, research driven strategy designed to create brand loyalty, drive consumption and normalise unhealthy eating habits from a young age so that they become entrenched for an entire lifetime. In 2022 alone, the Australian food sector spent $386 million on marketing for unhealthy food and drinks, with the majority of products being high in fat, sugar and salt. These are precisely the products that are contributing to our obesity crisis. Importantly, the National Obesity Strategy, the National Preventive Health Strategy and the National Diabetes Strategy all identify restricting unhealthy food marketing to children as a priority reform.”
“In the current context—with Australia broadly facing a shortage of health professionals, including GP specialists and all allied health; with hospitals around the country facing significant problems with bed block; and considering that the new health reform agreement required an injection of an extra $25 billion just to get it across the line—it is abundantly clear that we are well over time to start focusing on prevention. The National Obesity Strategy estimates that obesity already costs our health system $12 billion every year—a figure that is projected to balloon to $88 billion by 2032, unless we act. There is overwhelming evidence of a direct link between children's exposure to junk food advertising and rates of childhood obesity. On average, studies suggest children are seeing up to 168 junk food ads every single week.”
“Currently, a quarter of Australian children are above the healthy weight range, placing them on an early trajectory towards chronic disease. Among adults, that figure rises to two-thirds. This is clearly not an individual problem; it is a societal challenge that begins in childhood and compounds over time. Obesity remains a leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes, stroke, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and, of course, several cancers.”
“Providers stress that resource allocation should be based on real service availability and waiting times, not on postcode. (Time expired)”
“Government must design Thriving Kids to work with the full ecosystem—public, not-for-profit and private—so families have genuine choice and local capacity is not inadvertently dismantled. Related to this debate about registration is that, whilst all providers are bound by professional obligations and clinicians are operate under strong regulatory frameworks, many providers choose not to register for reasons of cost and administrative load, not because of poor quality. Any expansion of mandatory registration must be done without disrupting care through a streamlined, proportionate registration pathway that leverages existing professional registrations, reduces duplication and preserves safeguards and quality standards while ensuring small community based services can participate.”
“Building carer capacity should mean funding coaching, supported practice, and practical wraparound navigation. Parent capacity has a ceiling shaped by work demands, mental health, caregiving load and life stress. Policy cannot ignore that ceiling. Another consistent message is that we must design a system that matches the provider landscape and ensures there is not bias towards large NGOs being treated as the default voice of best practice with service models presumed scalable everywhere. In some metropolitan areas, including parts of Sydney, large NGOs have withdrawn due to cost and workforce pressures. Small family run practices remain embedded locally, coordinating with schools, GPs and preschools and supporting children over many years.”
“Kids First Children's Services also cautions that families cannot substitute sustained professional support with information, resources and online programs. The reality is families usually seek early intervention because they are already overwhelmed, not because they lack information. Many parents know what their child needs in theory, but require skilled in-person guidance to apply strategies in real life. Online access can be helpful but it does not reliably build confidence, consistency or progress for children with more complex needs, especially where families face trauma, poverty, housing insecurity, language barriers, disability or burnout. Government must ensure Thriving Kids supports carers without transferring responsibility onto them.”
“I would like to add at this stage that the paid prac placements are core to us growing our allied health workforce. At the moment, we are burning our allied health students out and forcing them to face decisions in their life as to whether they have food on the table or are able to complete their practical placements. That is not good enough. We must fund training pipelines, supervision capacity, retention supports and practical incentives to work in underserviced areas. It also means developing a workforce that is neuro affirming and evidence informed, including capability across diversity, including cultural competency, gender-responsive practice and disability affirming approaches for all disability types.”
“That means no child should lose, delay or have reduced support until foundational supports are fully rolled out, accessible and proven to meet demand. The majority of submissions all returned to the same reality—workforce. Reform will fail if we design a system that assumes clinicians, educators and navigators exist in numbers we wish they did. A local provider in my electorate of Mackellar Kids First Children's Services has made this point powerfully, saying, 'Allied Health qualifications take years. Universities struggle to secure placements. Experienced clinicians are leaving due to workload and administrative burden and lack of support.' So the government's task is two-fold: design a model that can actually be staffed, and invest now to grow and retain the workforce required.”
“Leading autism organisation Amaze cautions that commencement on 1 October and full implementation by 1 January 2028 may still fall short of the inquiry's intent for a flexible, phased rollout supported by pilots and clear public timelines, especially for workforce and service development. Just as importantly, the inquiry recommended overlap periods where both the NDIS and Thriving Kids operate concurrently, allowing children to remain supported under existing NDIS plans until Thriving Kids is fully functional and able to meet needs. Given the government has previously indicated changes to the NDIS access from mid-2027, stakeholders are concerned they may not fully overlap. It's important that both state and federal governments guarantee continuity of support.”
“Crucially, eligibility must not depend on simplistic severity categories that are not applied consistently and can be clinically imprecise. Functional assessment must be the basis for access and funding, with clear guidance and safeguards to prevent children from missing out at the point where early intervention matters most. Families should not be forced to wait for a formal diagnosis before help begins. Thriving Kids is an opportunity to fix a longstanding gap by funding early screening, navigation and functional supports from the first signs of concern, particularly for children in priority cohorts. Stakeholders support staged reform, but they warned that the revised timeline risks moving faster than systems can safely deliver.”
“As we now turn to program design and implementation, the government must heed the remaining and significant concerns raised by stakeholders in response to the inquiry report as practical advice on what Thriving Kids must look like if it is to succeed. At the moment, families and providers are still asking who exactly will be covered and how decisions will be made, as the inquiry's terms of reference did not include eligibility criteria in its scope. The government must ensure that eligibility for Thriving Kids is transparent, consistent and anchored in functional need. Stakeholders have expressed concern about language such as 'mild to moderate developmental delay and autism' and suggestions that autism is not a permanent disability, which do not align with established diagnostic frameworks.”
“Those accounts were frank, often difficult and deeply instructive. The phased implementation of Thriving Kids was due to start on 1 July 2026, with the access changes to the NDIS from mid-2027. The commencement has now been delayed to 1 October as part of the National Health Reform Agreement that was finalised last Friday at the National Cabinet meeting, with additional time granted to states and territories to implement the program, which I welcome. Many stakeholders are pleased to see that the inquiry report reflects core issues raised in evidence, including equity, genuine co-design, evidence based interventions, strong governance, a capable workforce and phased implementation. But a report is not an outcome.”
“I've heard directly from local families and providers in my electorate who are worried about what this program will mean for their children and clients. As a member of this committee, I welcome the tabling of the report, No child left behind , and want to reaffirm that the committee's purpose throughout has been clear: to ensure that every child who needs foundational supports is protected, included and able to access appropriate, high-quality services in a timely way through the design of Thriving Kids. That commitment has guided our work at every stage, and it now must guide the government's decisions in design and implementation. I also want to thank the many organisations, health professionals, providers, families and carers who contributed to the inquiry, particularly those who shared personal stories.”
“The inquiry into the Thriving Kids program was formally referred to the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability on 2 September 2025. The inquiry was tasked with examining and advising on the design of a national system of supports for children aged eight and under with developmental delay and autism who have low to moderate support needs. I want to say a huge thankyou to chair Dr Mike Freelander and co-chair Dr Monique Ryan for their diligence, their stewardship, their care and their deep consideration of all the submissions. I also want to say a very deep thankyou to all those who made presentations and submissions to the inquiry. It must be acknowledged that, since the Thriving Kids initiative was announced, many families, carers and providers have felt anxious about what's ahead.”
“Another is outlined in a recent report from the Superpower Institute, which shows that a polluter-pays levy would raise significant public revenue, reduce emissions and help fund both household relief and Australia's transition to a cleaner, more prosperous economy. The impacts and costs to Australian households and businesses will keep rising as fires, floods, drought and heatwaves become more extreme as a result of climate change, unless we also stop new coal and gas projects. It's time we made polluters pay.”
“But this burden cannot just fall on them, and it cannot continue to fall on affected communities. Governments and this parliament must step up. Natural disasters and extreme weather events in Australia are being exacerbated by climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. While communities across Australia are paying the price with their health, their homes and their livelihoods, first responders are often made to put their own lives at risk and deal with the aftermath. There are different ways to make polluters pay for the damage their emissions are causing. One option is a climate disaster levy, which would require fossil fuel producers to contribute to the growing costs of disaster response, recovery and resilience.”
“As a coastal seat, Mackellar has also been badly affected by sea-level rise and coastal erosion over the years. Again at Mackerel Beach, safe access for around 20 households is cut off daily at mid and high tide, due to coastal erosion. Residents must scramble over rocks and through waves to access their homes. In June 2016, a severe storm caused massive coastal erosion at Collaroy Beach, destroying several properties and causing an in-ground pool to collapse into the ocean. I want to acknowledge and sincerely thank our emergency services personnel and first responders, the local RFS and SES volunteers, and fire and rescue services, who once again stepped up under extraordinary pressure. They are being asked to respond more often, in more dangerous conditions, and with less margin for error.”
“More than 15,000 livestock were lost. My thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones and those who have lost homes, livelihoods and a sense of security. These events are deep personal tragedies that will be felt for years to come. My own community of Mackellar is also at the forefront of climate change impacts. Recent severe rain events have been destructive and alarming. On 17 January this year, torrential rain struck our region, causing flooding in Narrabeen, Newport and Mackerel Beach. Two hundred and sixty-four millimetres of rain was recorded at Great Mackerel Beach, causing a landslide, impacting three homes and sending a river of mud and trees smashing into the kitchen and living room of Mick and Sharon's home. It was only by sheer luck and quick thinking that they, thankfully, both avoided serious injury.”
“What we once considered an extraordinary heat event is now something a primary school student today will likely experience several times before they finish high school. Also, last month, cyclone related intense rainfall led to flash flooding in Queensland, destroying homes, livelihoods and livestock. Then, along Victoria's Great Ocean Road, communities saw their roads turn into swollen rivers in a matter of hours. People watched in horror as cars and caravans were swept away and familiar landscapes were torn apart. One week, the region had emergency evacuation orders, due to bushfires; then, a week later, they had them again, due to this flooding. This summer, Victoria also was seared by some of the most destructive bushfires in its history. A cattle farmer lost his life, and 900 structures were destroyed, including 338 homes.”
“Well, it has been a dreadful start to the year when it comes to natural disasters in Australia. Over the summer, large parts of our country have been hit by destructive storms, floods, fires and deadly heatwaves. It underscores the fact that Australia is at the forefront front of climate change harms. In Ceduna, South Australia, the temperature reached a record 49.5 degrees on 26 January, and across south-eastern Australia communities endured temperatures above 40 degrees for seven or eight days straight. These are not isolated spikes but part of a pattern of longer, more extreme and more frequent heatwaves. Intense heatwaves like these are now five times more likely to occur, because of human induced climate change.”
“Importantly, small businesses employ 6.8 million Australians—nearly half of our workforce. Part of my aim in doorknocking so many businesses is to ensure owners are aware of the supports available to them and also to simply listen. Over and over, I have heard the same thing: the last few years have been incredibly tough for small business. That's why I'm calling for a $20,000 tax-free threshold for small businesses. This would put up to $5,000 in tax savings back into the hands of small-business owners to reinvest as they see fit, to grow and stabilise their businesses. With the budget approaching, I urge the government to act.”
“Last week, we saw deeply concerning reports that the ATO's small business debt helpline is facing record levels of calls. This should be a wake-up call to the government as it is a clear signal that financial pressures on small businesses continue to mount. My team and I have spent many months doorknocking local businesses, and I have heard firsthand just how hard the past few years have been. Across Mackellar, too many shopfronts now sit empty, and behind every one of those closures is a family under strain. In Mackellar, as in regions right across Australia, small businesses are not just the backbone of the local economy; they are the heart of our community. They are our friends, our neighbours, our tradies, our florists and our cafe owners—people we see every day delivering the services we both need and love.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Overnight, Israel approved new measures that attempt to legalise settlement expansion and land confiscation in the occupied West Bank. Given that Australia has recognised the State of Palestine, that these settlements are illegal under international law and that Australia has used targeted sanctions elsewhere, will the Prime Minister sanction Israeli institutions and officials linked to the settlement expansion and strongly reiterate Australia's commitment to the two-state solution?”
“Tragically, right now, Iranian authorities have once again undertaken a deliberate strategy of persecution against their Baha'i community, in order to divert attention from internal issues and to justify further coercive measures against the community. Accusations that Baha'is have orchestrated or participated in violence are not only false but fundamentally incompatible with Baha'i teachings. I stand with Australia's Baha'i community to demand that this cease and that the escalation of persecution of Baha'is stops immediately.”
“The world has looked on in horror at the situation in Iran over recent months. Once again, the people of Iran have risen up to protest the brutal oppression and corruption of Iran's leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, only to be massacred in the streets by their own army. Tens of thousands of Iranian citizens have been murdered. Today I want to highlight the specific targeting and oppression of Baha'is in Iran. Mackellar has a vibrant Baha'i community, and we are proud to be home to a magnificent Baha'i temple—one of only eight in the world. However, in Iran, there has been relentless state sponsored persecution of Baha'is since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Baha'is have been denied recognition under the Iranian constitution and stripped of fundamental rights.”