Elizabeth Watson-Brown
Ryan · Australian Greens · Australia
“We terrified the major parties because they knew it was popular and they were going to lose votes if they didn't do something. So they caved. Both Labor and the Liberals committed to 50 cent fares permanently. In 2022, we won bigger taxes on coal corporations in Queensland with the same method. We announced our policy.”
“Labor MPs were sitting around a table with Sportsbet at the Midwinter Ball last night, and this morning they introduced gambling reform designed to appease the gambling lobby. Gambling is a multibillion-dollar industry built off the losses of everyday people. People are losing their livelihoods and their lives over this.”
“This is the motion that Labor just tried to stop me talking about: the need for essential public services to return to public ownership. Instead, Labor replaced it with their own topic. I've never seen this happen before in the entire time I've been here.”
“It's no wonder that they want to stop me talking about it. They don't have the solutions. The real solution is staring us in the face. We have to end 40 years of privatisation and corporate rule. If you're out there in the real world listening to this, I just want to say something.”
“on indulgence I also acknowledge that it's a very good idea that we do have a conversation about this because it's a critical thing. We here on the crossbench are representing our constituents, and we are giving them a voice here in this parliament. Any potential suppression of that is a suppression of the voices of our constituents.”
“That's why I reckon we can win a gas tax, but only if we organise. We know the people in Labor and the major parties are still too close to big corporations to really put everyday people first, so we'll have to replace them. But you know how we replace them? By getting organised.”
The complete record
Every one of 365 lines we hold for Elizabeth Watson-Brown, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 5 of 8.
“While gas corporations get our gas for next to nothing, make billions exporting it and pay no tax, it is frankly disgraceful for kids at our public schools to get anything other than world-standard education. But that's what Labor and the Liberals want you to accept. For years they've let massive corporations pay no tax while chronically underfunding our public schooling system. Well, Queensland teachers are not accepting it. They've just voted against a pathetically weak enterprise bargaining offer from the Queensland state government. They're fighting for a better deal for all our kids. Our amazing teachers are doing incredible jobs, but they're hamstrung. They're massively overworked, working weekends and on holidays to prep their classes and do marking and burdensome admin.”
“His No. 1 priority was to speed up approvals so big corporations can wreck the environment even faster. BHP have said they welcome the strong signals from the government. I'm sure they and the other mining companies are happy that they can keep making mega profits, paying minimal tax and getting their approvals fast-tracked, without worrying about that pesky environment or climate.”
“Some conspiracy theories are real. Here's one you'll want to hear: big corporations really do control our government. Here's the story. Labor promised environmental law reform when they came into government in 2022. The Greens said we were happy to work with them to protect nature and the climate. But, at the eleventh hour of negotiations, the mining industry—companies like Woodside, Santos and BHP—decided they weren't happy. They got on the phone to Western Australian Premier Roger Cook, who then lobbied the Prime Minister to tell him to kill the deal, and he did. Then, under pressure from the same big corporations, in February this year the bill was withdrawn from parliament altogether. One of the first things that the new environment minister did was to fly to Perth to consult with mining companies on the new version of the laws.”
“The-Minerals Council of Australia were very happy that a climate trigger was ruled out and said that there were 'a range of measures in the package which will help development in the long term'. So what are the experts on the environment saying? The Australian Conservation Foundation says, 'These bills do not protect nature,' and that they provide 'a rubber stamp for species extinction'. Greenpeace said that the proposed laws 'fail to address deforestation and climate change', and they also raised serious concerns about the level of ministerial discretion included. The Wilderness Society said the new laws would increase political interference and create 'new loopholes to weaken nature protections'. So who should we trust? I know I'd rather trust those environmental organisations over the coal and gas corporation lobby groups.”
“Offsets should not be allowing big corporations to simply pay to keep destroying the environment. Labor are prioritising the interests of big corporations over the environment and over the planet, and it couldn't be clearer when you look at who is backing their environmental law reform. Chevron? They support these laws. Australian energy producers, the oil and gas lobby? They said: Australia's oil and gas industry supports the government's commitment to deliver faster and simpler environmental approvals … BHP 'welcome the strong signals from the Australian government'. The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies welcome the bill and commend the minister.”
“There's also a new pathway for offshore oil and gas to exempt them from these laws, and, perhaps most concerningly, there are new pathways for ministerial exemptions: a broadly defined 'national interest test', including for projects in apparent no-go zones or that cause an unacceptable environmental impact. The national environment standards that underpin this whole piece of reform have not yet been made public. We're expected to pass the bill without actually having seen them. This legislation also reverses an earlier restriction on environmental offsets, which we know are more than questionable. The Biodiversity Council has criticised this offsets principle as weakening the current like-for-like standard, which forces offsets to account for the ecological character affected.”
“Nothing in this proposed legislation will stop that. But the problems, the failings of these laws, don't stop there. It's not that this legislation just fails to protect nature and the climate; it is actively taking us backwards, because there's another tranche of inclusions. They are a bit technical, and Labor are hoping you don't notice them, but I'll go through some of them. There are multiple new pathways to streamline approvals for the benefit of big polluters. This proposed legislation allows the minister to delegate approvals to the states so projects can bypass federal regulations like the water trigger in the existing EPBC Act. Horrifyingly, in Queensland, it means delegating to the climate-denying LNP government.”
“There are two big failures to address existing gaps in our environmental laws. Firstly, the generous exemptions for native forest logging remain. They remain. It is absolutely crazy that we are still logging native forests in 2025—destruction of our precious natural environment, in many cases subsidised by Australian taxpayers. These native forests are incredibly important wildlife habitat and crucial carbon sinks as well. Secondly, there is no climate trigger in this legislation. That means that the carbon emissions produced by a project which has a direct environmental impact are not considered under environmental laws. This has, obviously and tragically, resulted in dozens of coal and gas projects gaining approval under the existing laws, and they will continue to be approved under the proposed legislation.”
“The sad reality is that these new laws are actually worse. These proposed laws are worse. They've been, seemingly, drafted with only big business in mind rather than designed to actually stop environmental destruction. Previous versions of environmental laws from the last term of parliament were quashed after lobbying from the logging sector and the mining sector and their chief political mouthpiece, Western Australian Labor premier Roger Cook. One of the very first things that the new minister for the environment and water did this term was fly to Perth to consult with the mining sector again—the first consultations—with, apparently, his No. 1 priority being to speed up approvals for big business. That priority could not be clearer in the legislation that's been presented to parliament. Let's just break it down.”
“In Australia, an area of forests and bushland the size of a football field is logged every two minutes. This is wanton, government sanctioned destruction of our environment by rapacious big corporations in pursuit of profit. We have the highest rate of mammal species extinctions in the world. The Labor government has approved 31 new fossil fuel projects since coming into government, including an extension to the Southern Hemisphere's largest fossil fuel project, Woodside's North West Shelf—fossil fuel projects by big corporations that pay little in tax and royalties while wrecking our environment, wrecking our planet and exporting the profits overseas. This is all happening under the current environmental legislative framework, which, it seems, everyone acknowledges is not working for business or the environment.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Your proposed EPBC changes have received support from Chevron, BHP and the Minerals Council but have been widely criticised by environment NGOs like the Australian Conservation Foundation as failing to protect nature and the planet. Why has Labor prioritised the interests of big corporations over people and nature?”
“If you're in my electorate of Ryan, listening to this speech and affected by these changes, I want to hear from you. Please contact my office.”
“Well, the Greens are standing up. We eventually forced the government to release 20,000 home-care packages early, but that was clearly not nearly enough to clear that full waitlist. If you, your parents or grandparents are in a nursing home, these changes from 1 November will affect you too. They make things easier for for-profit aged-care providers and far harder—far harder—for care residents. These changes will now allow providers to keep part of that refundable accommodation deposit, which had previously been returned to relatives when the resident passed away. Under this rather dirty deal with the coalition, Labor also removed proposed criminal penalties for providers that do the wrong thing, and this comes after the royal commission into aged care exposed absolutely appalling behaviour by providers. They need to be kept accountable.”
“One in three big corporations in Australia is getting away with paying no tax, but, instead of going after them, Labor is going after older people, who've worked hard and paid their taxes all their lives—older people, just trying to get the care they deserve and that they need to survive. To add insult to this government-imposed injury, 200,000 people—a huge waitlist—are just trying to access home-care packages. The enormity of this waitlist was kept secret by the government until it was uncovered by a Greens-chaired Senate inquiry. People who urgently need this care are waiting years—I've heard from so many locals in Ryan—to access the care that they need. Shamefully, tragically, people will die while they wait. I'm ashamed. All Australian should be and should stand up against this institutionalised maltreatment by our government.”
“Fifty dollars for a shower: that's what some older people are going to be paying under the government 's new aged-care legislation coming in, in a couple of days. This results from a deal made last year between Labor and the coalition to protect for-profit providers, making life even harder for older people and their families. At least 50 per cent of older people will pay more for care from 1 November, including 30 per cent of full pensioners and 75 per cent of part-pensioners. The scheme includes co-payments for non-clinical care. These are essential services like help with showering, cooking and laundry, as though these services were some kind of luxury. How cruel.”
“It's a cruel joke to pretend that Labor is acting on climate. They're actively acting to make climate change worse. They're actively working to make climate disasters, bushfires, heatwaves and floods worse. They are gaslighting the Australian people who do want action on climate, who do want their homes to be safe—”
“We're hearing lectures about the climate wars. Labor wants to lecture us about the climate while congratulating themselves on what they're doing. Climate wars—Labor is actually waging war on the climate. Every time Labor opens a new coalmine, you wage war on the climate. Every time Labor opens a new gas project and every time Labor lets Santos pay no tax, you wage war on the climate. You are waging war on our planet's future. So what is Labor's record on climate? Its record includes opening 30 new coal and gas mines in the last term of parliament; abandoning reforms under the previous environment minister, under pressure from big corporations; and, 15 days after being sworn in this term, approving an extension to Woodside's North West Shelf, the largest fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere.”
“It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots here to work out who the government is listening to and to work out whose interests government decisions ultimately serve. I'll give you a clue: it's not the Australian public. No wonder corporations can pay no tax when you can't afford to buy a home. No wonder we give special deals to coal and gas corporations while your cost of living skyrockets.”
“It's one rule for lobbyists and another rule for the rest of us. Under Labor's proposed laws you're going to be increasingly kept in the dark about government decisions—shut out. Meanwhile they're letting cashed-up corporate lobbyists buy access to senior ministers. Under Labor's proposed changes to freedom of information, if ministers have so much as glanced at a document, you won't be able to see it, yet, if you're a billion-dollar corporation, you can sling Labor $15,000 or so and get a private meeting with a minister. Prime Minister Albanese promised a more transparent government. Now we know what he meant: a more transparent government for corporations and lobbyists, not more transparent for the Australian public. Prime Minister Albanese's government is now less transparent than Scott Morrison's coalition government. Shameful!”
“Now, let's be very clear, a policy that accelerates house price growth is not a housing policy; it is an enrichment policy for Labor's donors in the property development and banking industries. First home buyers are going to be stuck paying higher prices with incredibly high repayments and, should the worst happen and they're unable to meet those repayments, it will be the Australian taxpayers picking up the bill, not the banks. The Greens and I will continue to push for real solutions to this crisis, such as scrapping the tax handouts for property investors that help them outcompete first home buyers—those tax handouts actually help property investors outcompete first home buyers—along with a mass build of housing that people can actually afford. Debate adjourned.”
“Now, the ABS has the average cost to build a house at a bit under $400,000. If the government were to build public housing like we used to, we could do it much, much cheaper, but let's assume $400,000. This $368 billion could purchase one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight submarines. Or $368 billion could build one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 965,000 homes. That's right, we could clear the entire waiting list for social housing and take huge steps towards solving the housing crisis. Meanwhile, in capital cities around Australia, median house prices have increased by $35,000 in the last three months. They increased by $26,000 in the three months before that. Labor and the LNP would clearly rather give billions of dollars to US weapons manufacturers than deal with the housing crisis they created.”
“How can the government possibly build something at that scale?' Putting aside the fact that governments used to build masses of public housing—around 25 per cent of all new stock post-World War II—it's also a matter of priorities: what the government is willing to spend money on and what it's not, like the AUKUS agreement, where we're handing billions and billions of dollars over to the United States for submarines that might never be delivered, as well as—get this—public housing for US troops and private defence contractors. Unbelievable! Let's do a little thought experiment. How many submarines would $368 billion buy us? How many houses would $368 billion build? Under the AUKUS deal, we're paying $368 billion for submarines that may not happen. That's right, AUKUS is going to cost Australians $36 million every day for 25 years.”
“The same modelling suggests Labor's five per cent deposit scheme could increase house prices by 10 per cent in the first year. This policy doesn't address any of the issues that have caused the housing crisis. It doesn't address negative gearing or capital gains tax discounts for property investors, it doesn't build public housing and it doesn't help first home buyers because it was never designed to. This policy does one thing: it transfers wealth from everyday Australians to massive corporations. Every time we Greens get up here and say, 'Maybe we should actually build public housing,' we get told, 'Don't be so ridiculous; don't be silly; it's so expensive.”
“I want to talk today about what Labor's housing policy really means for everyday Australians: $24 billion in profit for the banks. That's what Labor's latest housing policy is really about. Let's break down the details of how Labor is forcing first home buyers to risk their financial future to enrich the big banks. The current median house price in Australia is around $860,000. That's up by almost $20,000 in the September quarter. Before the introduction of this new policy, by the way, assuming a standard mortgage rate and a five per cent deposit, a first home buyer will pay an additional $140,000 in interest. In total, first home buyers will pay banks an extra $24 billion in interest during the first five years of this policy alone.”
“My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. The median house price in capital cities across Australia has increased by $35,000 in the last three months as a result of the government's five per cent house deposit scheme. Modelling suggests this policy could increase house prices by 10 per cent in the first year alone. Will you admit that the Labor government is driving unsustainable house-price growth for the benefit of big banks and at the expense of everyday Australians?”
“This privatisation might be the absolute worst deal in Australian history. I don't want to undermine the importance of the services that CSL provides. We know they're so critical, and we saw that during the pandemic. But the profit motive will always fundamentally conflict with the need to provide the best possible health care to all Australians. We absolutely must keep essential services in public hands.”
“We also see the effects of that with privatisation of our public assets like CSL, which now posts huge profits for its shareholders every year. They sold Australia off for a song. Labor sold off CSL in the nineties for $300 million. The company is now worth $100 billion, and last year it made $5 billion in profit—with no tax paid, by the way. Those who were in the know enough at the time to pick up some shares when they were initially sold in 1994 have profited absolutely enormously. They've made their money back 500 times over. For comparison, the same figure for the Commonwealth Bank, also privatised by the Keating Labor government, is 50. Imagine what we could have had if CSL were still in public hands—a publicly owned pharmaceutical manufacturer working in the interests of everyday Australians, not its shareholders.”
“It's absolutely vital that the Centre for Disease Control and the advice that it provides reflect the diversity and lived experiences of our community, and it's concerning that the legislation does not mention disability once. The Greens believe that disability health is an important subsection of public health and should be recognised as a public health matter in the bill. One of the reasons this CDC is so needed is the constant undermining and privatisation of our so-called universal public health system. We see it with the private health insurance industry, propped up by government subsidies as competitors to the government's own system. Government subsidies are actually supporting these competitors to the government's own public health system.”
“Further, the inquiry into this bill has uncovered a range of good ideas that, if implemented, would ensure that the community can have a high degree of trust in the CDC, including, as previous speakers have mentioned, strengthening transparency, governance and independence. The Greens will be seeking to support amendments that ensure our community can have trust in the CDC. Additionally, the Greens are very pleased to see that there is a focus within the CDC legislation on First Nations health care and addressing the inequalities that exist. We're pleased that at least one member of the advisory council will be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander so that lived experience is included in the advice to the director-general.”
“The Greens have long been calling for the establishment of a well-funded CDC, and we will be supporting this legislation in the House. However, there are some improvements that we believe could be made. We'd like to see the CDC have an increased scope and funding so that it can be well prepared to support our Australian community for chronic diseases. The ongoing inquiry into this bill has clearly highlighted that the exclusion of chronic diseases is an omission, and its inclusion would provide great benefits to our community. We acknowledge that the minister in his second reading speech flagged the possibility of expanding the CDC's scope to include chronic disease after a later review, but we don't believe that that's good enough. The CDC should include non-communicable and chronic diseases in its remit from the beginning.”
“Essential services should stay in public hands. Overall, the Greens are supporting this bill in the House because we know small businesses need more support, and we acknowledge that the bill makes marginal improvements to existing beneficial ownership obligations. However, we're reserving our position in the Senate. We need Labor to implement their 2022 election promise to deliver a public beneficial ownership register with actual teeth. Labor cannot let massive corporations and billionaires off the hook for another term.”
“They've proudly told their investors they will sack Telstra staff across the country and provide a poorer service to customers by embracing AI. It's no wonder that, according to a Roy Morgan Research survey, Telstra is Australia's sixth least trusted corporation alongside such esteemed company as Temu and News Corp. None of this is news to everyday Australians. Selling off public assets has led to the downfall of both state and federal governments. Poll after poll shows people know that privatisation leads to higher prices and mainly benefits the corporate sector. Everyday Australians know what our politicians and the big corporations just don't seem to get: privatisation of essential services, like telecommunications, isn't sensible economic management; it just means higher prices for worse service.”
“With tiny incomes like those, how can we really blame these massive corporations for offering us more and more unreliable and poorer services for increasingly higher prices? Optus has clearly shown again that they choose profit over people. It's time these massive corporations started paying their fair share of tax and actually providing the essential services they claim to provide. Privatisation has been an utter disaster for Australia. Labor started the asset fire sale in the nineties, and their greatest hits include Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank and CSL. But it was the Howard coalition government that initiated the sale of then publicly owned Telstra in 1997. Let's check in on just how Telstra is going. Just last week, Telstra was fined $18 million by the ACCC for misleading customers about NBN speeds. That was just last week.”
“Oh, the line dropped out again.' Optus is once again responsible for an outage in their service that has left customers unable to contact triple 0. There were 4½ thousand people affected by that outage, and services were impacted for nearly nine hours. That included 9 triple 0 calls made during that time. Last year, Telstra shut down its 3G services, which left some rural Queenslanders with either much poorer service or no mobile coverage at all. Despite making those billions in profits, they're providing poorer service to their customers. But, in fairness, just like everyday Australians, these companies are doing it tough! In the 2023-24 financial year, Optus recorded a measly $8 billion in income, while Telstra reported a trivial $23.5 billion in income.”
“Netflix Australia received $1.1 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. Optus telecom, infamous for its recent triple 0 outages, and its parent company received $8 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. You'd think, with that income that they could afford to spend some on reliable services for Australians. So why aren't the massive multinational corporations, who are recording billions in income, paying no tax? That's because Labor and the LNP refuse to close the huge loopholes that let big corporations keep stealing from everyday Australians. 'Hello? Triple 0? Yes, I have an emergency. My phone provider, Optus, made $8 billion in income last year and paid no corporate tax. Hello? Hello?”
“Let's take a stroll down the corporate tax avoidance lane. The world's biggest meat producer, JBS, made $19 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. Massive gas and energy producer AGL made $12 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. Massive mining corporation Santos made $8 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. Transurban, the infrastructure company that owns and operates almost every toll road in Brisbane, received $3.2 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. Rupert Murdoch's media empire, News Australia Holdings, received $1.8 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax. Microsoft's data centre in Australia received $1.5 billion in income. Guess what? They paid zero dollars in tax. Sony Australia received $1.5 billion in income and paid zero dollars in tax.”
“Last term, Labor failed on their election promise to legislate to create a public register of ultimate beneficial ownership. That's because billionaires and the powerful owners of these companies lobbied the government and convinced them to back down on their election promise, because they just don't want that gravy train to stop. If you're a nurse, a teacher or a small-business owner living in my electorate of Ryan, you paid more income tax than almost a third of Australia's largest companies. We need a public register of ultimate beneficial ownership, because billionaires and massive multinational corporations hide behind trusts and shadowy corporate structures to avoid accountability and to avoid paying their fair share of tax. Are you one of the lucky one-in-three massive multinational corporations that pays no tax in Australia?”
“Last term, Labor failed their election promise to legislate to create a public register of ultimate beneficial ownership. This term, we get this bill, which marginally improves existing disclosure obligations but does not address private companies or trusts and does not create a publicly accessible register. Did you report your income and investments to the ATO? If you did, then you're probably not a billionaire or a massive multinational corporation. Just last week a report from Global Energy Monitor found that people profiting from 22 million tonnes of Australia's annual CO2 emissions are hiding their identity behind nominee companies. Nominee companies are the fossil fuel industry's favourite middlemen. They hide the real owners of shares, letting coal, oil and gas profiteers cash in from the shadows.”
“I very much understand this myself from deep and long-term personal experience—many decades as a director of my own small and then larger business. Small businesses make a huge contribution to Australian society and to the economy. And we know that too many small businesses are struggling right now in the wake of the pandemic and with high inflation and interest rates, and these employers of so many Australians need some extra support. Extending the instant asset write-off will give small businesses the certainty they need to invest in their businesses, which will have flow-on benefits for their customers, workers, the communities they're based in and, indeed, the whole economy. Schedule 1 of the bill relates to beneficial ownership obligations for listed entities.”
“I rise to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Financial Systems and Other Measures) Bill 2025. The Greens are supporting the bill in the House, but we reserve our position for the Senate, pending a Senate inquiry into the bill. This bill introduces several treasury measures, and I'm going to speak to schedule 1 of the bill, relating to beneficial ownership reforms, and schedule 7, relating to the instant asset write-off. Schedule 7 extends the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses until 30 June 2026. This was a policy the Greens took to the election, so we welcome the Labor government getting on board. The Greens understand how important small businesses are to our communities and to the broader economy.”
“Is this really who we want controlling what happens to our rare earth minerals, which are so critical for the energy transition? He's already cancelling renewables projects all over the US. This is a position fundamentally opposed to the interests of everyday Australians and the planet. The Labor government have already shown that they're willing to do pretty much anything the US wants. They're giving them billions in payments for AUKUS, building public housing for US troops and defence contractors and hosting their nuclear armed subs in Perth. Giving up even more control over our sovereign assets is nothing less than insane. (Time expired)”
“Just last week, the AFR reported that, after courting earlier this year by the Albanese government, the Trump administration is now strongly considering taking an equity stake in Australian critical minerals—critical minerals that are absolutely vital for Australia's and the whole world's transition away from fossil fuels. Last year, Australia cracked down on Chinese investments in our critical minerals to protect our national interest. So why are we courting the highly volatile US government to take an equity stake in critical minerals, selling our wealth, one of our most valuable assets, to the US government? How is that in Australia's national interest? Trump recently called climate change 'the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world'.”
“The simple fact is that, without Australia's contribution, the F-35s would not be able to drop bombs on innocent Palestinians in Gaza. Minister, when will you acknowledge our obligation under the convention to take immediate action to prevent the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza? Will you wait till the genocide is complete, when it will be too late to do what we should have been doing under the convention—that is, everything in our power to stop the mass slaughter? While we're on foreign affairs, I also want to talk about Australia's relationship with the US and some really concerning reports we heard last week. Does this government really want to give Donald Trump control over our renewables transition?”
“How can you continue to approve export permits of weapons parts sent directly to Israel, directly contributing to the genocide in Gaza? Australia is a party to the genocide convention. That means that we've agreed that we will act to prevent genocide. A definitive ICJ ruling that a genocide is taking place in Gaza could take until 2027, but what we do have is a ruling that it is plausible that genocide is occurring. It's been called a genocide by an absolute wealth of international organisations, including the organisation of genocide scholars, Amnesty International, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and an independent UN commission of inquiry, just to name a few. There have been at least 68 shipments of F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft parts flown from Australia directly to Israel between October 2023 and September 2025.”
“Reports are that Surya McEwen has been left with a dislocated arm and an injured head, was subjected to sleep deprivation and had his passport destroyed; that Juliet Lamont has had her medication confiscated, putting her at serious risk of a stroke, and was sprayed with a water cannon and left for seven hours in an unventilated area in soaking clothes with hands tied; and that detainees have had clean water withheld from them. The government should be doing everything in its power to protect and support these Australian citizens. I ask the minister to urgently provide an update on the wellbeing of these Australians. Minister, how can you justify continuing to regard Israel as a friend and an ally when this is how they treat innocent Australian citizens?”
“I want to acknowledge that we're here today on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, an atrocity and a war crime that the Greens and I roundly condemn. We continue to call for peace and for an end to the cycle of violence that both predates and has intensified since October 7. I have some questions I'd like to ask today of the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister representing the Minister for Trade and Tourism. Surya McEwen, Abubakir Rafiq, Hamish Paterson, Juliet Lamont, Bianca Webb-Pullman and Cameron Tribe are heroic Australians, kidnapped and abused by Israel. Their crime? Delivering food and medical supplies to Gazans who are being deliberately starved and murdered by Israel. These Australians have been subjected to horrific abuse by the Israeli authorities.”
“Finally, I want to highlight that the goal of the commission must be no more suicides. I'll quote Julie-Ann Finney: … we have to go for zero suicides because, if we don't, we're not doing our best. It's as simple as that. It doesn't matter what the answer is to that. We have to go for zero.”
“That is how we can change the lives of veterans for the better, and that must be our collective goal. We know there are deep cultural issues in the ADF that are contributing to these tragic outcomes. The culture of silence and military values are fuelling suicide risk, and Defence leadership must be held accountable for failures to address that culture. These cultural issues ripple across our society, particularly for families and veterans. After losing loved ones or dealing with the fallout of a cruel system, families are often forced to navigate a cold and careless system and set of processes. It's a real credit to the veterans community and the families of veterans that this commission was secured in the first place. We owe it to all of those involved, and the loved ones that they have lost, to implement the recommendations.”
“Many in this community have shared moving stories with me of their experiences. Some remarkable veterans in my community—I'm very, very proud of this—are working tirelessly to seek support and justice for their very deserving comrades. One absolutely non-negotiable recommendation that must be implemented is for a standalone statutory entity that oversees and drives the systemwide reform that this report calls for. I'm pleased that there is now support for standalone legislation for a truly independent commission, and the Greens are ready to work with the government on that. The commission, its report and those who contributed to it deserve more than just lip service. We need to be honest about the challenges, and continue on the path of respect and deep listening for this community.”
“The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide received nearly 6,000 submissions and conducted 900 private sessions. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity; it cannot gather dust. It cannot be treated the way other recommendations and reports have been, with their reform efforts quashed by Defence. I must express profound gratitude for the advice and time that so many in the veteran community have given to this commission, and to subsequent related bills and inquiries, in helping us understand the complex and interconnected challenges faced by veterans and their families. I am also very grateful for the work of veterans and advocates in the Ryan community, many of whom I've met. Ryan is home to the Army's Enoggera Barracks, and a large ADF and veteran community.”