The SPEAKER ( Hon. Tony Smith ) took the chair at 12:00, made an acknowledgement of country and read prayers.
That the House rejects the resolution put to the Senate yesterday which included a white supremacist slogan that is also used by hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Manager of Opposition Business from moving the following motion immediately:
That the House rejects the resolution put to the Senate yesterday which included a white supremacist slogan that is also used by hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
"There was a vote in the Senate yesterday in relation to a motion put forward by senator Hanson which the government should have opposed …
"When the motion was first put forward in September, and we considered our position on the motion, we made a decision to oppose that motion and to make a statement in our words that as a government we deplore racism of any kind, but not to actually support the motion.
"Yesterday, as the result of an administrative process failure the government senators in the chamber ended up, on advice, voting in support of the motion.
"As the leader of the government in the Senate I take responsibility for the error and I'm sorry that that happened. It is indeed regrettable.
"As I indicated when this motion first came up, we made a very clear decision to oppose that motion. It wasn't voted on in September, it came back up yesterday and it slipped through. It shouldn't have and I take responsibility for that."
Treasury Laws Amendment (Lower Taxes for Small and Medium Businesses) Bill 2018
That this bill be now read a second time.
That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the resumption of debate on the motion that the bill be read a second time being made an order of the day for a later hour.
I can promise you anything for 2026. The one thing they know is that they are not going to be in government in 2026.
The Girls Take Over Parliament program gives girls the chance to shadow a parliamentarian in order to learn about the parliament.
In Western Australia the program was expertly coordinated by Hannah Woodard from WA Girl Guides.
The Guides have a goal of empowering young women.
There is a new world coming and we need to prepare women and young girls to be part of it.
Empowering women to become parliamentarians is important because we need 50 per cent of our parliamentarians if we are to reflect 50 per cent of Australia.
Currently we only have 29 per cent of this House represented by women.
If we want to empower young Australian women we need to teach them from a young age they CAN do it—
When I was younger, my mum taught me that I can be the change I want to see in the world.
My mum Shelley is an inspiration to me.
She works closely with victims of domestic violence and homeless young people.
This has encouraged me to speak out on these important policy changes through the Girls Take Over Parliament Program.
… given the current fiscal environment, the listing of some medicines would be deferred until fiscal circumstances permit.
The need to remove discrimination against LGBTI students and school staff.
Catholic Secondary Principals Australia welcomes changes to anti-discrimination laws that remove any right religious schools have to expel students because of their sexuality.
I'm fundamentally opposed to discrimination in schools, for pupils or for teachers, on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, or really anything else for that matter.
None of our schools discriminate against staff employed or to be employed on the basis of their sexuality, gender or sexual preferences.
However, they do need to have the capacity to insist on a public lifestyle that is consistent with the ethos of the school.
… as to discrimination in enrolment and employment, we do not need or support any continued exemption.
The Bill will extend the exemption at section 38 of the SDA, so that otherwise discriminatory conduct on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity will not be prohibited for educational institutions established for religious purpose. Consequently, the Bill will not alter the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in respect of the new grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The bill also amends existing exemptions as appropriate to reflect the new grounds. This includes exemptions for religious bodies in relation to employment and the provision of education that have been in place for many years. These exemptions will continue under this bill and encompass the new grounds.
The Bill will extend the exemption at section 38 of the SDA, so that otherwise discriminatory conduct on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity will not be prohibited for educational institutions established for religious purpose.
Religion survives because it answers three questions that every reflective person must ask. Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live? We will always ask those three questions because homo sapiens is the meaning-seeking animal, and religion has always been our greatest heritage of meaning.
… … …
We stand to lose a great deal if we lose religious faith. We will lose our Western sense of human dignity. I think we will lose our Western sense of a free society. I think we will lose our understanding of moral responsibility.
The House divided. [16:19]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
Treasury Laws Amendment (Lower Taxes for Small and Medium Businesses) Bill 2018
All things being equal, surely people would prefer to be taxed when they were dead than when they're alive.
That this bill be now read a third time.
Customs Amendment (Product Specific Rule Modernisation) Bill 2018
That this bill be now read a third time.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Gift Cards) Bill 2018
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 the Government's lack of support for, and failure to protect, Australian consumers; and
(2) calls on the Government to reinvigorate the national Consumer Affairs Forum process, to enable the much-needed reform of Australian Consumer Law".
… the panel found that refinements to the law are needed to improve consumer outcomes and that, the current regulatory framework for consumer leases of household goods is not effective in promoting financial inclusion.
My father was someone who held strong beliefs and who spoke his mind and yet it's the image of him standing there silently on the podium that has made such an impact on our lives.
By knowing variability in crop or pasture production, farmers and agronomists can help manage their farming activities by rectifying mistakes, track crop growth, varying fertiliser and chemical rates across a field, reduce input costs, and predict productivity before final harvest.
Dear Prime Minister,
We call on you to transfer the asylum seeker and refugee children and their families off Nauru for medical care appropriate to their needs.
The medical situation is urgent for this vulnerable group of children. Medical experts, including doctors who have worked on Nauru, have spoken repeatedly about their concerns. They report widespread, significant deteriorations in physical and mental health. There are disturbing reports of young children attempting suicide by lethal means and withdrawing from their environment until they are almost comatose (increasingly called resignation syndrome). This is an extreme physical response to sustained psychological trauma, and is life threatening. A growing number have been transferred by order of the Australian Federal Court for treatment.
We are aware that there has been substantive investment by the Australian and Nauruan governments who provide health care on Nauru. We are aware that this includes provision of specialist mental health professionals including child psychiatrists. While we are grateful that these services continue to be extended, this will never bring resolution to these children's symptoms. The circumstances of an involuntary and indefinite stay on Nauru directly contributes to their deterioration in mental state, which is why extending services on the island can never be the solution.
We wish to state explicitly that our call to transfer should in no way be viewed as a negative reflection on Nauru's population, government or physical environment. The severe adverse physical and mental health effect of involuntary and indefinite stays have been widely reported around the world.
While we acknowledge the complexity of the situation, and that this in part results from a sincere desire to stop deaths at sea, we cannot accept that one policy necessitates harm to innocent children.
Our peak bodies have repeatedly offered to work with the government to provide independent oversight and expertise. This offer was repeated as part of the AMA President's letter that you received on September 19, 2018.
We ask that you reconsider.
We are deeply uneasy that expert medical recommendations are unheeded by our government. It is a dangerous precedent for other areas of great health need across our communities.
It falls within our mandate as doctors and medical students to comment on and advocate for those requiring care within our health system. We undergo years of rigorous training and ongoing oversight to provide the Australian community with excellent medical care. We believe that this care should be delivered without regard for race, age, gender, ability level, or location.
We call on you to show your commitment to the strong health care system we have in Australia, which we are the guardians of, by accepting the recommendations of many medical experts and bringing these children and families to Australia so their health care needs can be met adequately, and with appropriate clinical oversight.
… sometimes things work out in an organisation, and sometimes they don't. In this case, Scott Morrison didn't work out.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Wicks) took the chair at 16:00.
The legacy of those who lost their lives has been safer workplaces. This bridge is a monument to them all and a reminder that we all must work safe.
These provisions need to be altered to ensure that the Commonwealth law does not purport to override the State law where the donation concerned is used for the purpose of State electoral expenditure—
Certainly, if it is used for Commonwealth electoral expenditure, then the Commonwealth law should prevail over the State law.
When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.
Australia would be up in arms.
We once had a perfectly adequate system in Gippsland. When the campus of Federation University was part of Monash University we had students who completed their Bachelor of Science, specialising in biomedical sciences, who gained entry into the Monash post-graduate medical degree. When Monash University withdrew from tertiary education in Gippsland, they retained the medical school, and Monash University has since changed the eligibility criteria for entry into the medical degree, stipulating that students must do an undergraduate degree at a Melbourne campus of Monash University.
We are writing to you as a group of Federation University students to express our concern and disappointment at the current lack of a pathway to access the Monash University graduate entry medical degree.
The Monash degree is largely a Gippsland based degree. The entire first year is run by Monash on the Federation University campus. Following the first year of pre-clinical studies, much of the clinical placement in subsequent years is hosted by Gippsland health providers.
We consider it grossly unfair that students choosing to do their undergraduate degree at a regional university are excluded from their local medical school.
We have demonstrated commitment to this region by choosing to stay in our region or to move to this region to gain a tertiary education. It is people like us who are most likely to commit to medical practice in regional and rural Australia. The current requirement for people from Gippsland and other regional areas of Victoria to spend three years in Melbourne to attend university in the hope of gaining entry into a medical degree is likely to decrease the likelihood of these people practising medicine in rural areas after graduation. We acknowledge that our entry would be dependent on high academic achievement at Federation University and are not seeking a guaranteed entry. All we seek is fair and reasonable access to a regionally focused medical degree—our regional medical degree.
Your letter states—
that there will be no change to the current funding model or reduction of commitment to the Bairnsdale community with respect to medical training or any change in funding to support the existing local staff.
But when Hanson's motion hit the Senate floor the government sided with Hanson. The leader of the government in the Senate Mathias Cormann led his Senators to vote for the white supremacist language of the One Nation dog whistling filth.
They all lined up, including every Queensland LNP Senator—those people who will ask you for your votes in about six months. Do not reward them. By their actions they are supporters of the racist Hanson.
Just for your information the Queensland LNP Senators who supported blatant racism were Amanda Stocker, Barry O'Sullivan, James McGrath and Matt Canavan.
Shame on them all.
… the benefits expected to flow from the introduction of electronic voting appear relatively modest and would need to be considered in light of the cost of installation and maintenance …