Senator CASH (Western Australia—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (12:01): by leave—I advise the Senate that Senator Birmingham will be absent from the Senate today, for personal reasons. In his absence, I will be the Acting Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

Senator McCARTHY (Northern Territory—Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health) (12:02): I   , and also on behalf of Senators Dodson and Stewart, move:

That the Senate—

(a) marks the passing of Gunditjmara and Bundjalung man Archie Roach;

(b) recognises:

(i) Archie Roach was one of our nation's greatest songmen and truth-tellers, and Australia has lost a giant of the music industry and of the First Nations community,

(ii) Archie Roach was many Australians' first exposure to the horrors of the Stolen Generations, and his voice, his music and his story came out of trauma and pain,

(iii) Archie Roach's powerful songs also brought people together, providing strength and they still serve as a source of healing, and

(iv) the songs of Archie Roach will live forever, etched into more than 65,000 years of history and he will be remembered as one of the early Aboriginal artists to bring Indigenous music into the mainstream; and

(c) expresses its condolences and offers its deepest sympathies to his family.

Archie Roach didn't just make music. He gave an enduring voice to the hurt and hope felt by a generation of Australians. It's a voice that will remain etched in the minds of many Australians and also the consciousness of this country.

Roach was born at the Framlingham Aboriginal mission in Victoria. He was removed from his family at a young age as part of the stolen generations. He was separated from his mother, a Gunditjmara woman, and his father, a Bundjalung man from New South Wales. Uncle passed through several foster homes before he was finally settled with the Cox family. He acknowledged this family as having taken care of him well. He learned the basics of keyboard and guitar from his foster sister, Mary Cox. Uncle was too young to understand his situation, like many other members of the stolen generations, and he was left to assume that biological parents of his had already passed away.

But the truth about his forced removal from his family was discovered when he was a teenager, in a letter from a sister he didn't know that he had. It brought news of the very recent death of his mother. The revelation further complicated issues of mental health, identity and belonging, and is understood to have contributed to his falling into the streets with alcohol and other issues and periods of homelessness. It's to these stories of struggle, of finding his sense of self and identity, that he dedicated his life in song and story.

While living on the streets, Uncle met Ruby Hunter, a Ngarrindjeri woman from South Australia. He credits her as his saviour and his sounding board. She was also a talented musician and a member of the stolen generations. I know at one point she apparently saw Uncle in the studio audience on the Happy Hammond show when they were both kids and said to her foster mum, 'I'm going to marry that boy one day,' and so she did. They were partners in life and music for over three decades. Uncle was reluctant to make his first album, but it was dear Ruby who encouraged him to pursue the challenge. She told him: 'It's not all about you, you know. How many blackfellas do you reckon get to record an album?' They were soulmates, and they embarked on a journey of healing through music. Years later, when they were married with a family of their own, their house would remain open to disadvantaged young people in need of the support they themselves had found in each other. He brought people together through his storytelling and music. I guess in some respects he held up a mirror to our country, a mirror that still is there and continues to be there, because his songs are there and continue to be there.

The last time I saw Uncle was before COVID, here in Canberra. He performed here, and it was so good to see him. I think then I realised just how much of a journey it still had been for him since Aunty Ruby had passed away. It took him a while to get back on his feet and back out singing after she passed, but he was there singing strong here on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. Despite all of that—the hurt, the struggles, the pain—he was still reaching out to all of us in the audience, all of us who came to listen to him sing, reminding us, 'Look out for others, you don't know the footsteps and the journey that other people have walked, and, no matter how difficult your road, always look out for others.' That was a message I found firmly stayed with me throughout my life in knowing him. I think of his family and his children in particular, and I say thank you for sharing him with us, with the broader First Nations community, with Australia, with the world.

I just want to finish with the song 'Took the Children Away', which resonated across Australia and internationally. Just one song, like all of his songs, telling the stories of pain but also, incredibly, of hope and healing coming from the stolen generations. He reflected in the opening of the song:

This story's right, this story's true

I would not tell lies to you

Like the promises they did not keep

And how they fenced us in like sheep.

Said to us come take our hand

Sent us off to mission land.

Taught us to read, to write and pray

Then they took the children away,

Took the children away,

The children away.

Snatched from their mother's breast

Said this is for the best

Took them away.

The powerful messages and music of Uncle put into words and articulated that familiar feeling of heartbreak, loss, disempowerment and also hope.

I urge the Senate to play his songs. I urge senators to play his songs. Let's not just feel sadness, but let's celebrate an incredible man, a wonderful family and just give thanks to the way that he held the stories of our people and still sang with hope about the future. Thank you, Uncle.

Senator THORPE (Victoria—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate) (12:09): Before I begin, I'd like to request that Senator Cox's name and my name go on the condolence motion as co-sponsors.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator McCarthy, are you happy with that?

Senator McCarthy: Yes, Mr Deputy President. We spoke last night. I'm more than happy.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Please continue.

Senator THORPE: Thank you. The silence across this nation is deafening from the passing of a beautiful soul—a beautiful uncle, grandfather, father, brother, son—of Gunditjmara, of Djab Wurrung, of Keerray Woorroong, of my people. Framlingham Mission is where Uncle Archie came from. It was tough on Framlingham Mission in those days. Our people were given rations. Our people were treated like animals on mission reserves around this country.

Uncle Archie Roach was a baby on Framlingham Mission, where he was born. He was treated like an animal because of the colour of his skin. He was disrespected by the society he lived in. He was taunted with racism for most of his life. But he's fighting Gunditjmara, and he got through those difficult times at Framlingham Mission, where my grandmothers grew up, where my grandmothers come from and where my grandmothers were a part of Uncle Archie's care and love.

He was stolen from Framlingham Mission. He was a stolen Aboriginal child in this country. He wrote songs about being stolen, which everybody listens to. They love putting on Uncle Archie's healing, soulful music. The story behind the man and the song goes so much deeper than putting on his CD or turning on the radio. His story in song was a call to this nation to stop stealing our babies, because his babies were also at risk of being stolen—his two beautiful sons, Amos and Eban, whom I've seen grow up with beautiful love and care from community and his beautiful parents, Uncle Archie and Aunty Ruby.

They were a dynamite couple when I was growing up in Fitzroy. Everyone loved Uncle Archie and Aunty Ruby. He'd sing in the park, with the parkies, with his guitar. He even sang at my 21st with Aunty Ruby, because he's family. He wasn't that famous when he played at my 21st, but I'll claim it!

I just hope that a condolence motion also means that people are listening to the heartache and the pain that this man endured all his life. He turned that around. He put it into words of music and song to share with the rest of the country, to learn and to heal from. Aunty Ruby was his backbone, and, when she passed, a piece of Uncle Archie went with her. They were inseparable.

I just want to pay my respects to Aunty Diane and Aunty Myrtle. Aunty Myrtle still lives in the public housing unit in Collingwood; Archie's sister still struggles with the day-to-day life of being black in this country. Uncle Archie's family aren't immune to how this country treats First Nations people, and I know Uncle Archie was proud of me getting into the Victorian senate and of me getting in here. I know that because he told me. I know that because I'm still connected to his boys, and the intergenerational trauma of being stolen from your mother when you were four years of age never, ever ends. The symptoms that you all call 'issues'—'Aboriginal issues'—are symptoms of colonisation; stealing children was part of the plan to colonise this country, so we could lose our language, our identity, our connection to country, and our connection to totem and to song and dance.

I pay my respects to the absolute resilience and warrior man that was, and still is, Uncle Archie. Next time you put on Uncle Archie's music, remember his story—and remember that his story is happening today, that it will happen tomorrow and that it will happen the next day. Unless everyone in this chamber is willing to change that, it will continue forever.

So no more stealing children. Let's ensure that Uncle Archie's legacy and fight didn't go unheard. Let's continue his legacy, to ensure that no more children are stolen from their mothers' arms in this country.

Senator DODSON (Western Australia) (12:17): Let me congratulate you, Deputy President, on your esteemed position. I haven't had the chance to do so.

Archie Roach touched the lives of so many people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. I dubbed him the poet warrior of our nation, for his songs, his sound and his integrity. His artistic talent would always be greater and more enduring than the efforts of any orator. His haunting lyrics are the work of a modern poet laureate. Archie was a special storyteller and a captivating performer. His voice expressed his stories so powerfully. When I listen to his songs, I hear the dimensions of his life and his experiences, and I am always moved. When I listen to his songs, his voice transports me to places all over—to stories to our country and its past, to hard times and to loss but also to hope. Such is the power of his great gift to us all. This great and powerful gift, Archie's voice telling those stories in his songs, will grow only more relevant and more powerful as time goes on. They are songs that have been the soundtrack to our lives, to key moments and memories, and in that way they have become part of us and our stories. It is difficult to express how important an impact that is, and because of it he will never be forgotten and he will never be truly gone. We will always play his music and share his songs and remember and think of Archie and the great and lasting impact he has had on us and on our country.

We all know the words, the melody, the rhythm of what may be his best work known to us, 'Took the Children Away'. He himself was taken away in 1959, at the age of three, from his biological parents, who were living at Framlingham in Victoria, as Senator Thorpe has mentioned. No wonder he was able to write with such depth of feeling, such empathy and understanding, the lyrics, those words, in 'Took the Children Away', and in a song about Melbourne-born Aboriginal man Russell Moore, who died just over a year ago in a Florida jail. During the royal commission we tried, through the American authorities, to get Russell returned to our country. We were unsuccessful in our efforts.

Russell was a member of the Stolen Generations. He had served 30 years in jail before his death, having been convicted of murder, robbery and sexual assault. An Australian lawyer, Richard Bourke, who lives and practises in Florida, was a tireless advocate for Russell Moore to be transferred to his home country here in Australia. Russell Moore's birth mother, Beverly Whyman, from Swan Hill, also spent many years campaigning for her son to be returned to Australia, until her death in 2017.

'Take the Children Away' was Archie's tribute and lament. On this day of remembrance and mourning, I want to quote just a few lines:

His one true mother who'd searched in vain

For her son she never thought she'd see again

She received a phone call from Florida

They found her son and more bad news for Munjana

Hello Russell, this is your mother calling

Please forgive me I can't stop the tears from falling

You come from this land and sun above

And always remember the strength of your mother's love

They took you there when you were five

Now you're in some jail trying to survive

And if the truth be told when all have testified

Another crime committed here was genocide

My own memories of Archie Roach are focused back in my home country in Broome. I remember sitting under a bower shed at my home with Archie, and with us were Mr Bill Johnson and the late British actor Pete Postlethwaite. Archie and Pete had been on a journey of discovery in the Kimberley. They'd camped out in the desert with the Ngurra native title claimants and witnessed the senior leaders paint a huge canvas depicting their desert country. At night the elders sang the songs of that country and its significance—a huge experience for both Pete and Archie at the time. They walked across the old Fitzroy River at the Fitzroy Crossing and heard the stories of Jandamarra, the famous Bunuba warrior, and his deeds against the encroaching pastoralists and the police possies out to kill him because he had shot one of them. These were the stories of the killing times in the Kimberley being told to Archie and Pete. These travels were undertaken after meeting in Perth with Bill and his family and learning of the brutal murder of Bill's adopted Aboriginal son, Louis St John Johnson, by British backpackers, who used a vehicle instead of horses in the killing.

Bill and Pete had been friends together in England and had accidentally met in Perth when Pete was out here doing a play. We were all working on a documentary called Liyarn Ngarn, for how the two stories of our encounters with each other might become as one and free us from our ignorance, our fears and our prejudices. We were trying to expose truth about events in our historical and contemporary relationships. We involved the AFL legend Michael Long and his reflections upon his courageous walk from Melbourne to Canberra. Michael had attended so many funerals and so many Sorry Days, and he put the question to Prime Minister Howard: 'Where is the love for my people, Prime Minister?'

Archie had composed yet another song for the documentary. It was 'Liyarn Ngarn'. He sang it for us. Its underpinning plea was that we come together because we were already too far apart. As on many occasions when Archie sang, there was not a dry eye in that location. Again, allow me the indulgence of quoting a few lines from the lyrics of 'Liyarn Ngarn':

Where the forest meets the plain

Where the desert meets the rain

Where the river meets the sea

You and me, you and me

Liyarn ngarn, oh we've got to make a start

Liyarn ngarn, 'cause we've been too far apart

Liyarn ngarn, liyarn ngarn—mend all these broken hearts

Life is sour, life is sweet

And our stories seldom meet

But I believe the time has come—

To be one, to be one

How tragic that Archie passed away so young, at just 66 years old. It's not just another premature death of an Aboriginal person; gone is a wonderful, creative spirit. Gone is a great storyteller who knew how to touch the hearts and the souls—the conscience—of our nation, and how those words of Archie in 'Liyarn Ngarn' have a special resonance now as we move towards implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Archie already believed the time had come, to be one, to be one. The generosity embedded in the Uluru statement is matched by the readiness of Archie Roach to understand, to stimulate, to lift us up to a better place. Guliya, my friend.

Senator COX (Western Australia) (12:28): I was heartbroken to hear of the passing of Gunditjmara—Kirrae Whurrong/Djab Wurrung—Bundjalung senior elder, songman and storyteller Archie Roach. For a moment, time stood still on Saturday evening when I got the news. I want to indulge the Senate with just a little bit of information and honour Senator Thorpe, Senator McCarthy and Senator Dodson's words as well.

Archie Roach was born in central Victoria in a small town on 8 January 1956. He was the youngest of seven siblings, and his mother was Nellie Austin, a Gunditjmara woman from south-west Victoria. His father was Archie Roach Sr, a Bundjalung man from the North Coast of New South Wales. At only four years old, Uncle Archie and two of his sisters were forcibly removed from their parents. As Senator Thorpe says—and I echo this—they were stolen from their parents. Uncle Archie was put in the child protection system by the state and into foster care with Scottish immigrants.

At the age of 14, Uncle Archie found out about his First Nations heritage through a letter from his sister. Upon learning this, he left his foster family to find his real family. Uncle Archie spent years travelling and living on the streets, and while spending some time in Adelaide at the Salvation Army's People's Palace he met the wonderful and beautiful woman Aunty Ruby Hunter. Aunty Ruby was also a member of the Stolen Generations, and together they forged a life of music and raised a family with many children of their own, including their sons, Amos and Eban, as well as their foster children, Kriss, Arthur and Terrence. They also supported many young people over the years.

Uncle Archie's sons released a statement over the weekend saying:

We are so proud of everything our dad achieved in his remarkable life. He was a healer and unifying force. His music brought people together.

Uncle Archie was a songman, a guitarist and a writer. His rich and extensive career spanned nine albums, a soundtrack, compilations, a children's storybook about the Stolen Generations, a memoir and a poetry book.

Over 25 years ago Uncle Archie Roach wrote and released his debut album, Charcoal Lane, which included his story, 'Took the Children Away'. 'Took the Children Away' shed light on the impact for First Nations children who were forcibly removed and deliberately taken from their parents by police, governments and church missions. His song received an international human rights achievement award—the first time the award has ever been bestowed on a songwriter, and well deserved.

Uncle Archie was the voice of Stolen Generations, and in 2002 he wrote this:

My recent bouts of illness, I'm sure, are a result of the Pain of from being removed from my family at a young age, and more recently the loss of someone I loved so dearly.

He also said:

Pain can also bring about change in one's life for the better. We can choose to ignore the pain until it becomes unbearable, or we can do something about it.

I can relate to the words Uncle Archie sang in his song, 'Took the Children Away', through my own family's history as members of the Stolen Generations and, in fact, five generations of Stolen Generations. His music represented vibrational healing for First Nations people. And although our pain is sometimes so insurmountable, pain that is unable to be put into words, Uncle Archie put that pain into song and into music which brought it to a whole other level. His words were part of the healing journey for lots of Stolen Generations people, and they've been the subject of many conversations I've had over the years with my elders.

In 2008 Uncle Archie performed the 'Took the Children Away' song in Federation Square after former Prime Minister Rudd delivered the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. This song was so powerful for so many. It was the cornerstone of his truth-telling to this nation and amplified the apology. We saw a First Nations man be able to give his own personal recollection and story, which enabled the voice for so many across this nation. This remains true right up until today. We can still see children being removed today, as Senator Thorpe has already mentioned, which is the ongoing legacy of colonialism in this country. The apology was only one part of it, and we still have so much work to do.

Uncle Archie was a recognised leader in the community, and in 2014 he established the Archie Roach Foundation to nurture meaningful and life-changing opportunities for First Nations artists. The foundation seeks to walk alongside those working in the arts, and young people heading down the wrong track, to support them to be the best that they can be. Two years ago, Uncle Archie launched the Archie Roach Stolen Generations Resources—a free package of educational support materials, developed by First Nations curriculum writers, to teach young Australians about Indigenous Australia, cultural identity and the Stolen Generations.

I want to also pay tribute to the important work Uncle Archie did in the drug and alcohol space. Uncle Archie's own personal recovery from alcoholism was his story, and he shared that story. It was a symbol of the pain and the disconnect from culture that he felt acutely. On becoming the patron of the Western Regional Alcohol & Drug Centre, Uncle Archie reflected, and he said these words:

Recovering from alcoholism is part of my story. It's so important for people with alcohol and drug problems to have a service like WRAD that they can access for health. Rehab, as well as music, saved my life.

Speaking about the foundation, Uncle Archie also said:

The Foundation is a way for me to give back and pass on what's been given to me from people I've met on my journey who have pointed me in a different direction to a better way of life and understanding, to freedom.

I hope to be a signpost for others, to walk alongside and empower them to tell their story through the arts to point them in a deadly direction; in particular young people within the youth justice system.

Together we'll fly.

Uncle Archie was a once-in-a-lifetime person whose legacy touched so many. We remember and recognise his contribution not just in regard to music but also across First Nations communities across Australia. His contribution is in important community conversations, and it wasn't just his music, his song and his poetry; it was merely just his presence that people felt. Rest in power, Uncle.

Senator STEWART (Victoria) (12:36): It is with deep sadness that I rise to speak on the passing of Uncle Archie. Our nation suffered a profound loss with the passing of Gunditjmara and Bundjalung senior elder Uncle Archie Roach. I had the privilege of speaking with his family over the weekend to offer heartfelt condolences from my mob to his, and in doing that I got to hear how much they loved and adored him. I want to thank his family for generously sharing such an incredible human with the world and offer, again, my sincerest condolences.

I was very fortunate to witness one of his last performances earlier this year at the Treaty Day Out in Shepparton. As soon as he was on stage for his set, the entire crowd moved towards the stage so they wouldn't miss a moment of his words—a beautiful thing to bear witness to.

Uncle Archie was a truth teller, activist and healer. He had a uniquely articulate way of being able to tell the difficult truths of our nation in a way that people could really hear, feel and understand. His music has been described as being built on pain but driven by hope—how very true. Uncle Archie's pain was born out of being a stolen generations survivor. He gave voice to so many survivors with his music. It's heartbreaking to know that he was stolen so young that he has no memory of his mother and he never got to see her again before she passed. My heart smiles when I think of him being reunited and singing again with his great love, Aunty Ruby Hunter, and my heart sings to know that he will finally be reunited with his father and have unlimited moments to embrace his mother in the Dreaming.

There are many people who aspire to contribute to our society in a way that leaves it in a better place than when they got here, but very few really achieve this. Our country is a much better place thanks to his wisdom and music. Our country is a much better place thanks to Uncle Archie. 'Thank you' seems so inadequate in comparison to what you gave all of us, but I've been told that you didn't like a fuss being made over you; you were happy with just a cuppa and a Monte Carlo biscuit. So I'll say thanks by having a cuppa and a bickie for you today, Uncle. May your legacy live on forever. Rest in power, Uncle Archie Roach.

Senator BARBARA POCOCK (South Australia) (12:38): I note this is not my first speech. I rise today to join with so many other Australians to reflect on and honour the extraordinary legacy of Archie Roach and to add my condolences to Archie 's loved ones. I was so sad to hear of Archie's passing last week. He was a proud senior elder, a remarkable singer-songwriter and storyteller, and a loving partner, father and foster father.

For me and my family and community, Archie's music was a gift. It provided the soundtrack to our lives from the first album, Charcoal Lane, to his most recent album, Dancing with My Spirit, and with every album and song in between. But Archie's music was much more than a soundtrack; it's a truth telling, and it was a cultural gift of music which cut through to tell us the truth in a way that sometimes books and academic reading and history don't.

Seeing Uncle Archie and Aunty Ruby perform together is a powerful memory. It changed me. There are many ways to learn the truth. Art and music are so important to this, and Uncle Archie's gifts were rich and deep. He was a truth teller. His music and stories brought people across Australia to understand First Nations history and culture, including the ongoing and devastating impacts of colonisation. Through his songs, Archie provided a voice to First Nations people across the country. Of course, his song 'Took the Children Away' taught us all so much and will always be with me as a heart-wrenching recollection of his deep personal experience and the history of our long Stolen Generation and, as my colleagues Lydia and Dorinda have talked about and as others have said, such an important memory and truth telling for our country.

Archie was an inspiration to so many Australians. In an interview with the Guardian in 2019 Archie said:

You can reach the darkest point in our life and come back, and come back good.

This quote reflects his storytelling, which came from a place of deep colonial trauma and its legacy but often had a message of peace and healing. Archie will be remembered by Australians for his courage, for his clarity, for his artistry in telling his own story and for being a voice to the experiences of First Nations people across our country—indeed, all Australians—a teacher, an artist and, as Dorinda said, a healer. Rest in peace and in power, Archie. My condolences to your family: thank you for lending him to all of us for all those years.

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Emergency Management) (12:41): I also rise to pay tribute to the memory and the life of Uncle Archie Roach. I give my sincere condolences to his family and thank them for giving us permission to use his name so we may preserve and continue his legacy. Unlike some of the other speakers on this motion, I did not have the privilege of knowing Uncle Archie personally, but I saw him and his late wife, Ruby Hunter, perform on many occasions: at the Woodford Folk Festival, at the Blues Festival, at countless pubs and other festivals and, for the final time, probably about12 or 18 months ago, at the Home of the Arts facility on the Gold Coast. I was just talking with Senator McAllister, and we think one of the first times each of us saw Archie perform was at the Woodford Folk Festival, many years ago.

Every one of those performances that I had the privilege of seeing was memorable—obviously for the music, obviously for the soul and obviously for the stories but also for the wry humour Uncle Archie often contributed between songs. That last time, when my family and I saw him perform at the Gold Coast, was a very memorable occasion. Any of you who've had the opportunity to go to the Home of the Arts will know there's an outdoor amphitheatre, and on a beautiful night—I think it was spring, although I can't exactly remember the time of year—it was a beautiful setting to be outdoors listening to Archie play some of those songs that we all knew so well, with my whole family in attendance. That particular event was one of the first times a major venue at the Gold Coast had put on a show that featured 100 per cent First Nations performers. Archie was the headline act, as he very much deserved, but some other emerging First Nations artists and some stars in their own right, like Jessica Mauboy, also performed. I really enjoyed the night, as did my wife, but, most importantly, so did our kids.

Uncle Archie's songs have touched the hearts and souls of audiences around the world. A Gunditjmara and Bundjalung man whose voice and message has resonated across nations and generations, his beautiful voice and storytelling articulated the injustices inflicted on Australia's First Nations peoples but also the hope for a better future for those peoples—something I know all of us want to see and want to contribute to. As a member of the Stolen Generation, Uncle Archie knew of these injustices all too well. As other speakers have noted, later in life he wrote the song we all know so well, 'Took the Children Away'. Of course, it's wrong to focus only one song of Uncle Archie's, because there were so many great songs, but probably that is the one he became best known for in the wider community. In that song, he wrote:

Snatched from their mother's breast

Said this is for the best—

something that encapsulates the simply wrong attitude that carried the day around that policy in its days.

Again reflecting on this song: probably more than any conversation in our own home or at school, it was this song that truly taught my own children the heartbreak and sorrow of the Stolen Generation and caused them to ask the question we should all ask ourselves: how on earth could this possibly have happened? I remember the conversations with my kids—particularly my daughter, the younger of our two children—about the song, what it was about, what had happened, and what we needed to do to repair the damage and repair the heartbreak that was caused to so many people as a result of that policy.

Archie Roach was placed in a children's home and a series of foster homes until he finally found a family he could call home. Uncle Archie was 14 years old when he received a letter about the death of his mother. Until that day, he didn't know he had a family or who they were. Shocked and angry, he ran away from home at 15, first to Sydney and then to the streets of Adelaide and Melbourne, always searching for his family and his identity—something that has happened to too many First Nations people in our country.

It was while he was in Adelaide that he met his soulmate, the remarkable Ruby Hunter. I remember, in my 20s—and I'm sure you were there, Senator McAllister—seeing many concerts where the two of them performed. While each was an unbelievable performer in their own right, the two of them on the stage or on an album, contributing, complementing each other, and bringing different tones and different emotions, was one of the most amazing double acts Australian music has ever seen. It was such a privilege to ever get to see the two of them perform together.

Uncle Archie was a pioneer of First Nations music. He was the voice of a generation. He was a singer, a poet and a truth teller. His music embodies respect for all and demonstrated an artful commitment to truth telling well before that approach was accepted by mainstream Australia. Fortunately, his legacy will live on in his music and in the footsteps he left on our country and on our hearts. Rest easy in the Dreaming, united with your Ruby again. Vale, Uncle Archie Roach.

Senator HENDERSON (Victoria) (12:47): I join with my fellow senators in honouring the life of Archie Roach AM. In doing so, I acknowledge that his family has given all of us permission to say his name and to celebrate his life. I want to acknowledge the other, very fine contributions in the chamber today, including from Indigenous senators, and I particularly want to acknowledge the very deep friendship that Archie Roach and Senator Dodson shared.

I'm also speaking as the shadow minister representing the shadow minister for the arts in this place, and few Indigenous Australians have made a greater contribution to Australian music than Archie Roach. In the words of his great friend, the late English actor Pete Postlethwaite:

Archie, a "stolen child" himself, is one of the finest artists of his generation, and a guiding light for the indigenous struggle for recognition and reconciliation. He's been called the Aboriginal William Blake … His music sticks in the soul. It gets deep inside you. These songs are a reaffirmation of identity, country, beliefs and spirit, and as Archie himself says, "they're about how no one listened to our recommendations on stolen kids or people dying in jails. And so it continues ... but we are still watching and constantly taking note."

Archie Roach's music sticks, and will continue to stick, in the soul of Australians. It was his music which helped him to survive the trauma of being forcibly removed from his family at the age of two. Through music he was able to forgive and heal. He said, 'I believe in redemption and I believe in forgiveness, both important aspects of love, because I've … experienced both.'

Archie Roach was a wonderful musician, a wonderful artist and an incredible storyteller. He was also a very significant mentor, including to others who had suffered from the impacts of alcohol. He died far too young, at only 66 years of age, but his music will live on in the hearts and souls of all Australians. I offer my heartfelt condolences to all of Archie's colleagues and friends and, of course to his entire family, especially Amos and Eban, Archie's sons; and Kriss, Arthur and Terrence, Archie's foster children. May he rest in peace.

Senator RICE (Victoria) (12:50): I rise to add my voice to these condolences for the loss of Uncle Archie, Gunditjmara, Djab Wurrung, Keerray Woorroong and Bundjalung man. I want to give my thanks, Uncle Archie, for your life, your inspiration, your work for First Nations justice, your work as a storyteller and a truth teller, and your work sharing those stories and those truths with all of Australia. So many of us were touched by those stories and those truths. I want to send my condolences to Uncle Archie's family, to his friends and to everybody who has been touched by his life and his work.

His stories and his truths resonated with so many of us. For me as a Melbourne person, from Archie Roach's debut album, Charcoal Lane, in 1990 his music was sort of a backdrop to our lives. It was part of the soundtrack of people and communities working for First Nations justice. I was actually quite a latecomer in listening to and knowing his music and getting to know what he was sharing with us, but the moment I will never forget was at Federation Square on 13 February 2008, when the apology for the stolen generations occurred here in Canberra. I was in Federation Square and I remember it being a hot afternoon. I remember listening to Uncle Archie singing 'Took the Children Away'. It was just so moving, and a huge crowd of people in Federation Square were just touched to the heart about the truths that he was singing about. He dedicated his performance at Federation Square to the mother he was separated from and to his own children. He said, 'This brings a new start in life for us, the way it should have been'—this apology to the stolen generations.

I followed his career and his music more closely from then on. It was actually a distant friend, however, who gave me a copy of his autobiography; I think it was soon after it was published in 2019; it was probably early to mid-2020. She sent it to me and said, 'I just think you'd enjoy this.' This was soon after the loss of my wife, Penny, and I did. It just moved me so much to read his stories of resilience—everything he had been through and yet the hope and the goodness that he was bringing to the world. The quote that Senator Pocock just shared with us was, 'You can reach the darkest point in your life and come back, and come good.' That is what I think so many people got from his music and from his autobiography. Certainly for me it was a sense that you can get through these darkest times and continue on and be able to continue to work with honesty, to share that resilience and to work for justice together.

It was soon after getting a copy of that—I think it was in April last year—that, for the last time, I heard Uncle Archie perform, at the Werribee cultural centre. He was sharing his music with us, and what really came home to me then was just how his work brought people together. In fact, there's a microcosm. My whole family was there. Everybody had wanted to join together and go to this performance in Werribee, so my then 89-year-old mother and, I think, all of my siblings came together at that concert. Again, everybody was just so moved.

Obviously. the legacy of Archie Roach's life is for us to continue doing the work that he was doing: to continue sharing those stories, to continue sharing those truths and to continue working for justice; to acknowledge the pain, the hurt, the suffering, the genocide that has been going on for our First Nations peoples for over 200 years; and to commit ourselves to ending those awful practices, to stop taking the children away and to be working until our First Nations peoples have all of the rights, there is justice and we have treaties with our First Nations peoples—to continue that work that his songs and his life were such a powerful part of.

Thank you, Uncle Archie, may you rest in peace and in power.

Senator PRATT (Western Australia—Deputy Government Whip in the Senate) (12:55): My family cried the day Archie Roach died, despite the fact that, unlike others here, we had never met him. But we cried because he meant so much to us as individuals and he helped us as a family know ourselves better as Australians—to know ourselves better in a way that was profoundly meaningful to us as a family and, I really believe, also to us as a nation.

Our country is built on stories and from stories—stories that help us know who we are as a nation and as a people. I guess the story of the stolen generation, for an Australian like me, was not a story I knew or understood in the same way that my colleagues here as First Nations Australians know from their own lives and the lives of their kin and families. But, for me, Archie Roach opened up the visibility of First Nations stories about mission life, about racism, about dislocation and institutionalised racism. We saw that visibility and capacity to talk as an Australian people—and, in my case, as a family—about the experiences of First Nations people within our country but also with our friends and family, when we'd been unable to easily open up a way of talking about these issues.

Archie Roach's story Took the Children Away is, of course, a children's storybook, and I've been able to teach my son in a way that he understands—in a way that I was deprived of as a child in knowing our nation's history—about the truth of stolen generations. His music showed us immense suffering over our 200 years of colonial history and a very personal journey of suffering and resilience through this. He did this in a way that has brought us all closer together as a nation. It's not a black armband version of history at all. These are stories of resilience that are a source of great pride for our nation—stories of resilience, delight and joy in lifting the visibility of First Nations peoples lives.

Archie Roach sang of boxing, country and land, homelessness, intergenerations, family, racism, colonial dispossession, removal from country, but most of all, he also spoke of love. They're First Nations stories that resonated with us all as a nation and speak to who we are. So, as we move towards, I hope, voice, treaty and truth, I reflect on Archie Roach's words when he speaks of dark times and how you can come back good. That is something I reflect on. For us as a nation, it doesn't make up for our nation's colonial past wrongs, but it speaks to us and who we are as a nation in coming together to recognise this history.

So, as we remember today this immense titan of Australian cultural history, I reflect on one of his songs, 'The Jetty Song':

Oh your face appeared before me

And then I began to cry

I remember all the stories

That you told me long ago

It was time to leave the jetty

It was time to leave Loch Lomond

Oh but you did not forget me

Ever since you watched me go

Ever since you watched me go.

Vale, Archie Roach. Rest in power. We won't forget you.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Sullivan ): I ask senators to join in a moment of silence to signify assent to the motion.

Question agreed to, honourable senators joining in a moment of silence.

Senator BRAGG (New South Wales) (13:30): I want to talk a little bit about the ABC appointing an ombudsman, which is something that has been historically resisted. I am of the view that the ABC generally does a good job. I do think it has, at times, strayed into partisanship, and it has, at times, had a problem of being able to manage internal bias. But, in the main, I would say the ABC does a good job and has served the nation very well. As someone that wants the ABC to succeed, I have been concerned for a long time that the ABC had not been able to properly address the complaints that had been made about some of its programs and that it was a bit like Dracula running the blood bank in that, effectively, the complaint would go to the department which had been responsible for the program in some form.

Having followed through the process of having a review, which the ABC Board commissioned into complaints handling, the ABC has now decided that it will in fact appoint an ombudsman. I believe the ombudsman was appointed last night or this morning. The ombudsman's job is to ensure that the ABC's reputation is maintained and enhanced. For people who want the ABC to succeed, it's important that they do handle complaints fairly, properly and swiftly.

We all make mistakes, and it would be ridiculous to suggest that an organisation as big and as successful as the ABC wouldn't make the odd mistake, so I welcome the appointment of the ombudsman. I think it will help the ABC, and we will be able to probe the success, transparency and governance around the ombudsman over future Senate estimates rounds. I welcome this from the ABC's board. It's a very good decision. Thanks for the opportunity to speak here today.

Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (13:32): I rise to speak on the importance of stemming the staff shortages currently plaguing the aged-care sector and on why the delivery of a Community Care TASMANIA training and respite centre in Launceston will work to ease these pressures.

Labor looks forward to providing $2.8 million in funding for the project, as we believe it's important now—more than ever—to improve service delivery of respite care, and education for aged-care and disability workers. This funding will allow for training alongside respite services, with an additional 55 support workers completing their certificate II and III in aged care and disability care every year. Trainees will learn on the job and will be job-ready much quicker. The service is open 24/7 and will add to the capacity of care in the state in the form of 35,000 hours of day respite per year. It will also take pressure off Launceston General Hospital by freeing up more beds and ensuring Tasmanians can receive medical care when they need it most from well-trained carers and health professionals.

Thanks to the CEO of Community Care TASMANIA, Wendy Mitchell, and her team, this project is already underway. I will work closely with the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler, to ensure that it is delivered on time and in full.

After a decade of neglect under the Liberals, it is time to give older Australians what they deserve. This centre, along with our commitment to put a nurse on site 24/7 in all aged-care homes, as well as giving carers more time to care, backing a pay rise for aged-care workers, implementing new food standards and increasing transparency in the sector, will see a meaningful reform to this sector.

The Albanese government has given this commitment. We will give older Australians the care and dignity they deserve.

Senator RICE ( Victoria ) ( 13:34 ): Today I have the honour of sharing, in her own words, a statement from Melissa, a person struggling to survive on the on the meagre JobSeeker payment:

I'm on Jobseeker with a reduced capacity to work due to chronic illness and disability. I live on 330 dollars a week. It was hard to survive before inflation hit but now it's devastating.

I'm great at budgeting but now budgeting means not buying the basics. It means rationing out food to last a fortnight. If I've budgeted well I can eat one meal a day. If another expense comes up I have to choose which days I need to skip food completely. I try to choose days I have no appointments so I can sleep through the hunger.

In November last year I was diagnosed with scurvy and malnutrition. Let that sink in. A country as wealthy as Australia and I'm unable to eat enough good food to get the nutrients I need to live. This has a devastating effect on my health. How can I possibly get work-ready when I can't afford to live? Yet jobseekers are expected to be able to find employment under these conditions.

Prices are rising and Jobseeker isn't. I'm isolated from my community and have lost countless friends because I can't afford to grab a coffee with them. There's nothing to look forward to and I've become hopeless … It's day after day of being in survival mode. It's stressful and it's demeaning.

But you have the power to change that for me and millions of others. Poverty is a policy choice. Instead of punishing us for not being employed you could take a chance that raising job seeker would also raise our chances for getting work-ready.

It's time to start fighting poverty and not the poor!

Senator MARIELLE SMITH (South Australia) (13:36): On any given night in Australia, there are 116,000 people experiencing homelessness. According to the 2016 census, in my home state of South Australia there were more than 6,000 people experiencing homelessness every single day. Too many of those experiencing homelessness are young people and children. Homelessness is more than rough sleeping, and it's not always long term. But we know even short periods of homelessness can have long-term impacts on health, education and employment outcomes, and we also know that homelessness can happen to any of us. It can be unexpected—when a lease expires, when a relationship breaks down, when employment unexpectedly ends. And we also know the fastest-growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness are middle-aged women, who often have little to no economic safety net in terms of their superannuation and employment.

This week is national Homelessness Week, and the theme is To End Homelessness We Need a Plan—and a plan the Albanese government has. I am deeply proud to be a part of the government that will establish a national housing and homelessness plan and that will establish a national housing supply and affordability council to ensure the Commonwealth plays a leadership role in increasing housing supply and improving housing affordability. We are building 4,000 new social housing properties, specifically allocated for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence, and we're investing $100 million in crisis and transitional housing options for women and children. We won't fix homelessness overnight, but the size of the task should never deter us from the urgency of action.

I want to acknowledge all those organisations in my community working every day to support those experiencing homelessness, not just in Adelaide but in our rural and regional areas, where we know this issue is so significant too. Thank you for the work you do each and every day.

Senator DAVEY (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the National Party) (13:38): Not to take away from the very serious issues that have already been raised in this section of the day, I will be lightening the tone a bit. I rise to encourage people not to forget the regions as they look to their future travel plans, because we suffered through COVID; we have suffered through drought. Our woes are not gone, and we need you to love our regions.

I want to give a little plug to my home town of Deniliquin, which is so much more than the Deni Ute Muster, so much more than the world-famous ute on a pole, which you can view as you come into town. We have the fabulous beach-to-beach riverside walk along the beautiful Edward River. We have state forests and we're on the edge of the Barmah-Millewa national park. And you can go and see the Barmah Choke, which I speak on regularly when I have my water hat on. We have the Peppin Heritage Centre, which tells the story of the very famous, world-renowned Australian merino sheep. The bloodline was actually developed in and around Deniliquin. We have the Hay Plains and the majestic sunsets you can see. In summer we've got water skiing and river floats down the river. You don't need a boat. You just need a blow-up mattress, and you can thoroughly enjoy it.

I was set a challenge by our local mayor to find out how many people know someone from Deniliquin. I have been walking around the parliament over the last couple of weeks and here in this chamber. Every person I talked to knows someone from Deniliquin. Go figure! It's amazing. I implore you: if you don't already know someone from Deniliquin, get in the car, go for a drive and meet someone, because they're good mob.

Senator WALSH (Victoria) (13:40): The Albanese Labor government has introduced legislation to deliver 10-days paid family and domestic violence leave for all Australian workers. This landmark legislation started with strong union women standing up and speaking out in their workplaces for safety and security. Through their action and with the election of the Albanese Labor government, we will now see this entitlement extended to all Australian workers who need it.

One of these pioneering union women was Sharon, an Australian Services Union delegate from the Surf Coast shire in Victoria. Sharon was in an abusive relationship when her EBA negotiations started in 2010. She fought to include paid leave for workers going through similar situations. Standing together, these ASU members became the first in the country to have paid family and domestic violence leave. This win set off a national campaign which has run for over a decade, culminating in the legislation that we introduced.

Last month I spoke with Kristy, an ASU member from the City of Greater Geelong Council. Through her ASU agreement she has access to domestic violence leave already. Kristy was able to use it when facing domestic violence at the hands of her ex-husband. Years later, Kristy is still going through the court system to keep herself and her children safe. She told me that this leave meant she had time to reorganise her life, to keep her job and her house and to keep her children safe and secure. Kristy told me: 'Now I want everyone to have access to it.' And because of the tireless campaigning of women like Sharon and Kristy in their unions across the country, they will.

Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (13:42): Last 19 July marked nine years since the former Labor government announced that people who arrived in Australia by boat to seek asylum could not settle here and would be exiled and detained offshore. It has been nine years of imprisonment, brutality, deliberate cruelty and separation from families for thousands of people and nine years of murder, rape, child sex abuse in a system specifically designed to punish and harm innocent people. Right now there are over 200 people still in Papua New Guinea and Nauru still suffering and still in exile after nine long years.

I met this morning with three people who suffered through so many years of detention, both offshore and onshore—three very brave people: Ismail, Betelhem, and my friend Thanush, who I first met on Manus Island in 2016 and who is with us in this chamber today. It's good to see you, my brother. Their message was simple. The people left behind in Papua New Guinea and Nauru need emergency evacuation here to Australia. They need medical support, they need freedom, they need community support and they need permanent resettlement in a safe place.

The Australian Labor Party sent them to Manus Island and Nauru in the first place, and the Australian Labor Party can and must evacuate them now, immediately, and bring them to Australia. There is much, much more that we can do for these people, but immediate, urgent evacuation is the critical and urgent necessity. Bring them here and bring them here now. Nine years is far, far too long. Let's not make them wait for a single day more.

Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory) (13:44): Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the good people on Norfolk Island. It is a beautiful part of the world, some 2,000 kilometres out in the Pacific Ocean. There's an amazing, generous community spirit, with families who have been there since 1856. If something is broken, the community will come together to fix it—and there's not much on that island that can't be fixed with the community spirit and elbow grease of the locals.

However, one of the challenges that they desperately need the Commonwealth's support with is the cargo crisis unfolding on the island. The supermarket shelves are running bare. They're low on stock, and, being so reliant on tourism, tourist operators are struggling to have enough food to ensure that they can actually serve meals to their customers. It's a worrying set of conditions, given how reliant they are on tourism.

Whilst I commend the government for increasing the number of air freight trips, the community have told me that they are still struggling to get supplies. Major investments are needed to support a modern and safe shipping delivery system for the island, particularly as some products cannot travel via air freight, such as medical oxygen cylinders. Norfolk Islanders want to help, and I hope the government will reach out and consult with locals on how to overcome these challenges.

I want to thank the Norfolk Islanders for their hospitality and generosity. I hope to return soon and explore more of your amazing island. I was lucky enough to get across to Phillip Island and see some of the amazing work that Parks Australia are doing over there.

Senator RENNICK (Queensland) (13:46): Last week, the Auditor-General released an audit report into the Building Better Regions Fund and tried to somehow allege that the government didn't act in the best interests of the taxpayers in spending that money. I should point out that $1.2 billion was spent over five years. Last night, I read that audit report. I went through it to look for what actually was spent and where it was spent wrongly, and I noticed that the Auditor-General didn't mention once where the money was actually not spent properly or wasn't in the best interests of the taxpayer. I've got a bit of history here with the Auditor-General. Last year he made the accusations—very unfair accusations—that the former coalition government had paid too much for the land at the Leppington Triangle. That was completely false.

In my 25 years of financial accounting, I've never seen a worse audit report prepared. The Auditor-General failed to comply with AASB13, paragraphs 29 and 30, which say all land must be valued at best use regardless of zoning. The Auditor-General tried to claim that the land was agricultural land when it was actually in the airport zone. You don't buy land for an airport and then put cattle on it; you tend to build. So it has to be for best use.

He failed to consult with staff in the department. One of the staff in the department—who was completely innocent, mind you—had the Federal Police turn up on his doorstep, in front of his children, which was very intimidating to the staffer. These powers shouldn't be abused, and the Auditor-General should not be being political in what should be an impartial position.

When we look at the market value for five minutes—when I first heard about this, I hopped on realestate.com and looked up the suburb, and five acres was going for $6 million. So you could work out in a matter of minutes that what the coalition had paid was clearly the market value. I would suggest in future that much better quality assurance be applied to our auditing.

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (13:48): I often end my speeches with the words, 'We are one community, we are one nation,' for a reason. Oneness is a fundamental teaching of Christianity. I quote I Corinthians 12:14:

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.

Verse 26 says:

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

The Bible reminds us that a body of people working together can achieve that which people divided never will.

One Nation will continue to embrace all who share this beautiful land. One Nation embraces First Australians, and we embrace those who have come since. All are important. All make each of us greater than we could ever become by ourselves. Indeed, all have made us greater than we once were.

As a community, we do face evil. That battle is as old as time itself. That's why humanity has evolved to consider community the basic building block of safety and prosperity. Those who seek to divide do so because they seek to destroy. Instead, together we can overcome the ravages of Mother Nature in a harsh but bountiful land. Together we can achieve abundance for all Australians. Surely, if our bounty is not being shared fairly, we must correct that. Together we can defeat predatory billionaires who believe they should own everything and we should own nothing. Together we can change the lives of First Australians in remote communities who deal with conditions that, today, no human being should ever have to. We can and must start on that today.

Evil is fought together, not apart. One Nation will continue to hold our hand out to those captured by intolerance and hate. I live in hope that one day our hand will be taken. In the end, love and courage will win. Most Australians feel the same way.

Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (13:50): Disabled people deserve access to this parliament. Why is this concept one which every single Labor or Liberal government finds so confronting? This week my colleagues Senator David Pocock and Senator David Shoebridge requested an Auslan interpreter to join them in the Senate to interpret their first speeches. This request was denied. Their request was denied because your rules are based on an old, ableist way of doing things: the rules that say that this parliament must deny the request to avoid setting a precedent of a stranger on the floor. To me, yet again they have denied disabled people the opportunity for genuine inclusion in this place. The Procedures Committee are set to review these ableist rules, and it is about damn time they do so. If you think that captioning is good enough for deaf and other Auslan-using people to access parliamentary feeds, you are wrong; if you think that relegating an interpreter to another room to provide their service is good enough, you are wrong; and, if you think that what you've granted today, an on-screen interpreter, is good enough when an in-person interpreter was requested, you are wrong. Let me also add that, if you think this allowance is a one-off, you are wrong. Why should anyone who is travelling to the parliament be denied access in their own language? Auslan interpreting should be offered during every sitting, every speech, every time.

Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia) (13:52): Surprise, surprise! Just when we elected the Labor government, guess what happened: they took the first opportunity to turn their back on Western Australia. Not only did Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister, say he would govern for all of Australia; he undercooked Western Australia's representation in the federal cabinet, and now he wants to abolish this parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia.

An opposition senator: Disgraceful!

Senator DEAN SMITH: Disgraceful indeed. He wants to silence the voice of the Pilbara region—silence the voice of towns like Port Hedland, Karratha and Tom Price. He wants to silence the Kimberley region—towns like Derby, Broome, Kununurra and all of those many communities in between, including Indigenous communities. Northern Australia represents 53 per cent of this continental landmass and 1.3 million people. Two hundred thousand of them are Indigenous, and Anthony Albanese, supported by Western Australian Labor senators, wants to abolish this committee. This is outrageous.

On a very serious note, even the deepest critics of the work of the committee would have to admit that the work that it did on the Juukan Gorge inquiry in the last parliament was landmark. It was a testimony to the strong bipartisanship or tripartisanship of this parliament in responding to very important issues that were not just Western Australian issues and not just national issues but issues that the whole international community took notice of. And what does Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister, want to do? Supported by Western Australian Labor senators, he wants to abolish the northern Australia committee.

Opposition senators: Shame!

Senator DEAN SMITH: Shame! Shame, shame, shame! And, if that is not unbelievable enough, it's the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, a Western Australian, the member for—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Cox ): Thank you, Senator Dean Smith. Senator Brown.

Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania—Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) (13:54): Yesterday, I had the honour to present some remarkable Australian organisations and councils with Australian road safety awards. The awards, organised by the formidable Australian Road Safety Foundation, are in their 11th year. I would like to take some time to congratulate the winners again.

The Community Programs Award was awarded to Road Sense Australia's Traffic Offenders Intervention Program. The program is a behavioural therapy based approach to road safety education. The Schools Program Award was awarded to the South Burnett Regional Council for their Safe School Projects program. The program is an initiative to improve regional road safety outcomes around schools. The Indigenous Programs Award was awarded to the PCYC Queensland, Braking the Cycle, Changing Gears program. The learner driver mentor program is working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to help gain their licence. The Innovation Award was awarded to Youthsafe for their Learner Driver Mentor Online Training program. The training is for volunteer learner driver mentors. The Technology Award was awarded to eDriving & Innovation Group for their Mentor by eDriving program. The program helps organisations across the world. The Local Government Programs Award and the Founders Award was awarded to the City of Gold Coast for their Gold Coast Road Safety Plan 2021-2026. The plan is to reduce crashes, save lives and prevent serious trauma. The State Government Programs Award went to the Logan City Council's Tyre Deflation Device, Logan trial program. The Recognition Award went to the Maribyrnong City Council for their Holistic approach to road safety program and to the Royal Perth Hospital for their P.A.R.T.Y Program.

Senator HENDERSON (Victoria) (13:56): I rise to condemn Labor's decision to block the delivery of the coalition's $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative, including a $12 million grant for Carbon Revolution—one of Geelong's most successful advanced manufacturers. It's extremely disappointing that the Labor government has taken this decision on the basis that it is conducting a value-for-money review.

On 10 May, I was very proud to join the former Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction, Mr Taylor, to announce a $12 million grant for Carbon Revolution's $33 million project to expand its advanced manufacturing of carbon fibre wheels to the global electric vehicle market.

This was funded by the coalition's Modern Manufacturing Initiative, Manufacturing Integration Stream, Recycling and Clean Energy. Not only will this project enable Carbon Revolution to produce an additional 75,000 carbon fibre wheels per annum at a 60 per cent lower cost, supporting state-of-the-art clean energy technology and 332 jobs; it will position Australia as a leader in the production and export of carbon fibre wheels.

This is a heartless attack by Labor's razor gang. It demonstrates a callous disregard for Australian manufacturing and the investment certainty that Australian manufacturers need at this time. I particularly condemn the member for Corangamite and the member for Corio, who have absolutely not said a word about this—not a word!

Honourable senators interjecting—

Senator HENDERSON: You can object as much as you like. Not a word standing up for manufacturing in Geelong. It's an absolute disgrace, and I call on the Labor government to reverse this shocking decision.

Senator GROGAN (South Australia) (13:58): I rise to make a reflection on an experience I had a couple weeks ago when visiting the Tauondi Aboriginal College in Port Adelaide. It's a college that was set up in 1973 to recognise the Adelaide Plains people and the important work that they have been doing.

It's a college that helps support Aboriginal people make decisions and pathways into meaningful careers. It has for many, many years been seen as the Aboriginal hub, the cultural hub, within Adelaide. It has hosted some of the most important discussions and supported so many important initiatives over that time.

Unfortunately, in recent times, their funding has been under a great deal of threat, and they've lost their block funding. So they've now built a new pathway forward for themselves, a new business plan, to stand on their feet. One of the key things they do which is so important is to teach the Kaurna language, both to Aboriginal people coming up through that college—

The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Grogan. The time for two-minute statements has expired. It's time for question time.

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (15:04): Yesterday in question time, in response to a question from Senator Thorpe I undertook to get some further information, if it were available, about the process of design for a makarrata commission. I have written to Senator Thorpe. There's little additional information to add to the answer, but, given I gave the undertaking, I table my response to Senator Thorpe.

Senator BROCKMAN (Western Australia) (15:05): I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

Once again, we've seen a severe lack of economic literacy from the Labor Party today. We've seen again, following the theme this week, that they have no idea how to tackle the cost-of-living crisis in this country. We have seen severe impacts on the price of groceries. Obviously, we've seen huge increases to the cost of fuel. We've seen massive increases to people's mortgage repayments. Labor is basically saying: 'Wait till the budget. Wait till October. We're not going to do anything about it till October. We're a fiscally responsible government, honestly, but we don't have anything to do now to help Australians. We're going to wait till October.' Quite rightly, I think, the Australian people would be watching closely. They'd be watching this government very closely, and they would be starting to worry that there actually is no plan: no plan to tackle the inflationary pressures in our economy and no plan to tackle the cost-of-living pressures faced by Australian families.

Particularly, in my constituency—I love to talk about everything outside the city—in regional areas, the cost of fuel alone is such a significant pressure. Families now have to make a decision as to whether to continue the Saturday morning football, because the cost of driving the car to practice and then to the game on the weekend is simply too much for the household budget. This is not necessarily something that will affect those in this place—it certainly won't affect the union officials who are advising this government—but it does affect families out there, whether they're in suburbia, outer metro Australia or regional Australia. These pressures are very real, and 6.1 per cent is the headline number, but everyone out there who does the weekly grocery shopping knows that the cost pressures, particularly on groceries, are seemingly much higher than that. You are seeing extraordinary pressure on household budgets in terms of balancing the books, making sure people can get through the week and making sure they can do those extra things that they want to for their kids.

We see again today that we have a government with no plan, no strategy, to help Australian families now. 'Wait till October,' is the answer. 'We're responsible.' Well, you will be responsible. You'll be responsible for an awful lot of economic pain unless you get these settings right. As the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Peter Dutton, said in the other place, the Australian economy needs a very finely balanced response. The government needs to provide a very finely balanced response. We have to protect Australian families from cost-of-living pressures and a wage price spiral. This government needs to be able to deal with both sides of the issue. It is a test of leadership for this Prime Minister, and instead we have Jim Chalmers talking about putting a union rep on the board of the RBA. How is that going to help?

Senator BROCKMAN: How is that going to help the Australian families who are struggling to make ends meet, Senator O'Neill? How is that going to help the Australian families who are struggling to make ends meet?

Government senators interjecting—

Senator BROCKMAN: Those opposite—

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order on my right!

Senator BROCKMAN: care more about putting a union official on the board of the RBA than they do about balancing families' budgets, and the interjections from those opposite just show that. You don't arc up until I mention the union rep on the RBA, and then you arc up, don't you? Goodness gracious!

Senator STERLE (Western Australia) (15:10): I sat here and thought: how many gifts from heaven can fall in my lap today? Well, Senator Brockman, you damn beauty! Thank you so much, dear Lord. I'm coming back! Do you want to talk about the increasing costs of living? Don't go! Come back, Senator Brockman. I've got respect for you. It's just that you do mix with some strange people. I'll give you two words: Josh Frydenberg. I'll give you another two: Scott Morrison. You want to talk about the cost of living. I'll tell you what happened. Let's cast our mind back to mid-May when those two geniuses of the Liberal Party thought it was a fantastic idea—anything it took to win a vote. They thought: 'How can we con people that they should vote for us again even though we've been absolutely incompetent and done five-eighths of nothing?'

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Fawcett—

Senator STERLE: Oh, no, Senator Fawcett, you're better than this. I haven't even started—

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Excuse me, Senator Sterle. Senator Fawcett has a point of order.

Senator Fawcett: Point of order, Deputy President. My good friend Senator Sterle would understand that, under standing order 193(3), imputations of improper motives are not in order.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I'd ask you to reflect on your comments, Senator Sterle, and restrain yourself where you sail close to the standing orders.

Senator STERLE: For you, Mr Deputy President, it would be my privilege. For my good friend Senator Fawcett—there's my second gift from heaven. Lord! This is getting better. I'm coming back! They thought that it was a great idea, in the dark of night, to slash the diesel fuel credits from the road transport industry and from the agriculture industry. Anyone with half a peanut in their head would understand where I'm going on this one. Our truckies and our agriculture industry—Senator Brockman, I wish you were still here—get 17.8c per litre to claim back every three months in their BAS. Guess what happened? There was not a 22 per cent reduction in diesel costs, because they stole the 17.8c diesel fuel credits from the road transport industry and the agriculture industry. I'll tell you what happened. All the truckies got was a 4c-a-litre reappraisal, or whatever the word is. I know about this because I sit at the bowser fuelling trucks in my spare time—it's a fun thing; the whole lot of you should try it—and, in the last 12 months, I watched diesel go from $1.50 to $2.40 a litre. Don't worry about the rip-off of the 17.8c. There's all that cost of diesel going too. What happens in the real world is that, when a lot of the big operators negotiate their contracts, they have what are called 'fuel levies'. I'm not going to insult your intelligence, senators, because you are the three smartest ones on that side. I'll give you that. You know exactly what I'm talking about. The majority of the transport industry—

Senator STERLE: No, three. Let's leave it at three, Matt. You and I are mates. Let's keep it that way. About 70 per cent of the road transport industry is mum-and-dad businesses—small to medium-sized enterprises, so to speak—who have no ability to negotiate the fuel levy. Oh, gee whiz! I can't believe it. Can I ask for an extension of time, please, Mr Deputy President? I could go for an hour on this underwater with a gob full of marbles! Those mum-and-dad businesses do not have the ability to put that back onto their costs. Do you wonder why we're seeing $10 iceberg lettuces? It's because the cost of road transport and agriculture has gone through the roof.

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg—do you know the worst part about this? Not one of you said a darn thing. You know darn well it was the wrong thing. You knew it was just criminal to allow your previous Prime Minister and Treasurer to try and con the people of Australia, but the worst part is—it did me another favour; another present fell in my lap—that they absolutely disrespected the road transport industry. The only thing that saved them is the complete incompetence of the Australian Trucking Association, which I rightly call 'the Canberra branch of the National Party'. They don't represent the transport industry, and they weren't going to say anything to their Nat and Lib mates. I've got to tell you: thank goodness that everyone else raised their voices.

I kid you not, you brag about saving 22c a litre for the average family car—and for some families that would make a difference, absolutely. But for the $13 extra that is saved on the Hyundai, that got filled up once a week, put another, nearly, $30 in the cost of groceries at Woolworths, Coles and other stores—and you think that's good mathematics? And the good burghers of Australia woke up to you, because I couldn't wait to help every single Australian who was listening to what Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison pulled over their eyes whilst, sadly, the rest of you just sat there like lemons going over the edge of the cliff! Guess what? It's still a major problem.

The trucking industry and the agriculture industry are not the 'Bank of Australia'. You've paid for your sins. But, I'll tell you what, some of you—not you three good ones over there; the rest of you on that side over there—how you look in the mirror or how they look in the mirror at night and think that they've been a great representative of their communities, see how we go when the small family businesses come to you in tears because their businesses have gone—

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Sterle. Senator Fawcett?

Senator FAWCETT (South Australia) (15:15): I too rise to take note of answers by Senator Gallagher, supported by her ministerial counterpart, Senator Watt. With your Scottish surname, I'll start off with this. The concept of history being written is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but, in fact, it is traced back to 1746, of the Battle of Culloden, in Scotland, where one of the clan leaders lamented he didn't know how many members of his clan died on the battlefield because it's the victor who writes the history and counts the dead.

Today we have seen a lot of that in this place. Almost every second sentence, in the answers that have been provided, is about what was inherited or the former government and talking about the need to re-create and reinvest in things that are claimed to have been a failure. The test that the Treasurer, who Senator Gallagher represents, held out for himself about the success of their government was what happens to power prices, what happens with apprentices and manufacturing, and what happens with wages? So there's been a lot of talk about training and manufacturing and skills in this question time.

I think it's really important to place on the record the fact that last year, in the last full year of the coalition government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison, there was a record $6.4 billion in skills and investment. We actually had the most apprentices, in training, since records began in 1963. Let me repeat that: the most apprentices, in training, since records began in 1963. Part of the reason for that is the strategic investments that the Morrison government made in areas of manufacturing. We had the Modern Manufacturing Initiative and fund, which sought to identify those areas that were critical to Australia's security and Australia's future. That went to important areas such as defence, space, medical goods, supply chain resilience, critical minerals—the things that the world has identified, particularly during the period of COVID, that are critical to a nation's security. And we have seen not only the government funding that has gone into those programs but co-investment from industry, which has led to some of the great outcomes, in terms of the numbers of people in training, but has also led to things like the unemployment rate being down at 3.9 per cent and decreasing.

To go to Senator Gallagher and her representing the Treasurer and the test that he has set, where he has said the test is what happens with manufacturing and apprentices—unlike the coalition, who worked with industry to invest in more productive capacity, which led them to invest to employ people, to train people around apprentices—we see a talkfest. The plan from the Labor government is a talkfest. That's what their plan is on skills.

When it comes to manufacturing, for those who read the Australian, on 24 July there was quite a substantive article expressing concerns that I have heard, on the ground, from people within both this space and the defence sector—that the razor gang within the Albanese government, as they seek to find savings ahead of the budget, have put a pause on the modern manufacturing grants, which means that companies who have invested, who have employed, who have started to train people, are now expressing concern to me and were expressing concern to the journalist who wrote the article, that these projects which underpin Australia's sovereignty as security, as supply chain resilience, are now in doubt. So manufacturing has actually been stalled by the Albanese government. So as the Australian public consider these first couple of months of the government, they should compare the positive investment that led to new jobs, new innovation, training for our children and future generations with a talkfest and a razor gang that has put all of those investments in doubt. I think the Australian public will in time realise that those people who have chosen to rewrite history have, in actual fact, no real plan to create a future.

Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (15:20): I rise with pleasure to refute some of the nonsense that we have heard in the contributions from those who are speaking for the opposition today. They may rail at the answers that they're receiving, but the reality is they're on the end of a bit of truth-telling after nine years of the deception and thimble-and-pea tricks that have populated this government's action.

Australian people know they're hurting. I talk to people in the retail sector very, very frequently. People are now finding it really hard, when they get to the checkout, to make ends meet. That is because when we came into government those opposite had left this country not only with a trillion dollars in debt but also in a state where we found we have rising inflation, rising interest rates, supply chain disruption—as Senator Gallagher indicated—no investment in skills and an energy market that is in crisis. That's the reality of what nine years of the former government delivered. And yet they come in here and act as if they gave Australians a great experience and they left us all fine. It's a joke.

It's like when you've got kids and they're about seven or eight, and you say, 'Go in and tidy up your room,' and they just stuff everything under the doona cover, pull it over the top and pretend it's not there. That's the equivalent of the 23rd energy policy of the member for Hume. He had 22 goes at trying to deliver some policies—but no market certainty. No wonder smart people weren't putting their money behind this government, because they couldn't tell which way they were going to turn on any day. They had no solution, so he brought out the doona and pulled it over, four days before the election. They can't tell the truth. They throw the doona over it so the Australian people don't know there has been a 19 per cent increase in energy—they'll never figure it out! The contempt for the Australian people that is manifest in the questions that are being asked by the opposition and by their responses, which absolutely fail in a court that looks at fact.

That's what Australian families are faced with: the fact that inflation delivered by the policies of the previous government is making it harder for them; the fact that they had to pay through the nose for training; the fact that the previous government didn't tell them the truth on so many occasions. So contemptuous of the Australian people were the former government that Minister Taylor thought it was okay to cover up a massive increase in the cost of energy that was going to flow through into the economies of this country's families. And that is why they lost the election—in the end, you can pull the doona over things for only so long before the adults have to come in. Maturity has to enter. Proper conversations have to be had.

This afternoon, those in the opposition have characterised the skills and training forum that's going to be held—a national forum to deal with the fact that we haven't got enough workers for our small businesses to operate effectively—as a talkfest. They don't know anything about talking. If they had talked properly to the Australian people, they would have come up with policies that hadn't landed us with the situation we find ourselves in, with rising inflation, a trillion dollars in debt and supply chain disruption. All of that is because of their failure to have authentic conversations—real conversations about what matters to this country. So it's a bit rich when they come in here and start trying to run a line that there's no plan.

There's plenty of plan. There was the plan that we took to the election. There's the plan that enlivened the vision of Australians of a better future for themselves and their children, for small businesses, for people who want to get training and for people who want to employ people who get training. We have a plan, and we've begun to implement it already with the legislation that's been brought into this place. Those opposite don't like it, and they are attempting in this first period of our being in this place to rewrite history—to absolve themselves of the sins of their failures in public policy. And nowhere are those failures more evident than in the hip-pocket pain of every business and every household that is suffering the consequences of years and years of neglect in dealing with the energy reality of Australia. Those opposite should not be attended to. They failed the nation, and they're on the correct side of the chamber.

Senator SCARR (Queensland—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (15:25): I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Gallagher to my friend Senator Brockman. In relation to Senator Sterle's contribution, I'd like to make some preliminary comments. I think it is important that everyone, including those who join us in the gallery, is aware of the fact that Senator Sterle does an outstanding job delivering household items and furniture to those in need in the remote places of Western Australia. I commend Senator Sterle on it, and, to the extent that prices have gone up on diesel, I'm happy to kick in, mate! I'd just make those comments in relation to Senator Sterle.

But the reality is there are cost-of-living pressures which are being faced by Australians all over this country, and the question is: What is going to happen when those Australians go to fill up their cars after the period of the fuel excise being cut in half comes to an end in September? What are they going to do? We're starting to hear stories now—I heard more stories today—of parents, especially in some of our more challenged socioeconomic areas, who are now making choices: 'do I use that petrol in my car to do the shopping or to go to work, or do I use it to take my son or daughter to sport or to participate in all sorts of events that every child in this country has a right to expect an opportunity to participate in?' The question is: what is the government going to do? What is the government going to do to practically take action to confront those cost-of-living pressures?

The reality is that in the last budget for 2022-23, brought down by the former government, on page 9, under 'Budget priorities', was:

Addressing cost of living pressures and managing current challenges through:

A temporary and targeted cost of living package, including a $420 cost of living tax offset for low- and middle-income earners—

that's what we did in government. What is the new government going to do? What is their plan?—

and a $250 cost of living payment for eligible Australian pensioners, welfare recipients, veterans and concession card holders.

That's $250 in the pocket of all those pensioners and welfare recipients. That was the former government's plan. That's what we did in government. What is the new government going to do? What is their plan? These are reasonable questions that should be asked in this place. What is your plan?

I've talked about this:

A 50 per cent reduction in petrol and diesel excise and excise equivalent customs duty for 6 months that will deliver an average benefit of around $300 to households with at least one vehicle.

That was our plan—introduced and delivered at every petrol bowser across this country. What is the government's plan? What are they going to do when that policy runs out after the six-month period, in September? What are they going to do? Australians all over this country are going to be confronted with that additional 22 cents a litre every time they go to fill up their car.

What is the government's plan? We do not know. There is no plan. These are legitimate questions being asked by the opposition, as is our responsibility as an opposition in this place. Just today, interest rates have gone up. The cash rate is now at 1.85 per cent. It hasn't been since 1994, during the Hawke-Keating years, that we've had four consecutive interest rate increases, in four consecutive months. You've got to go all the way back to 1994. That was the last time that happened. What is the government's plan to address cost-of-living pressures? Australians are being hit from all sides in terms of fuel prices, grocery prices, rental increases, interest rates—they're being hit from all sides. Certainly, during my time in this place, I haven't seen this sort of conflation of all these factors occurring at the same time, hitting Australians in their back pocket. What is the government going to do? What is your plan?

Question agreed to.

Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (15:31): I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to a question without notice he asked today relating to interest rate increases.

The question focused on interest rates, and, as we've just heard, the Reserve Bank lifted rates again by 50 basis points. Interestingly, last month we heard the Governor of the Reserve Bank basically jawboning down wages, saying that he didn't want to see wages over a particular level. But, no matter how hard I listened and many other Australians listened, we didn't hear the Governor of the Reserve Bank jawboning down corporate profits. That's something that we didn't hear, but we did hear him jawboning down wages.

The problem that we have is that we haven't heard anything of that nature from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, but we also haven't heard anything of that nature from this government. In his statement to the House last week, the Treasurer, Dr Chalmers, neglected to mention the role that corporate profiteering is having on putting upward pressure on inflation in this country. And, despite being asked repeatedly by me in this place, the finance minister, the minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher, has also not acknowledged the role that corporate profiteering is playing on putting upward pressure on interest rates.

I want to be clear that the Greens do acknowledge some of the supply-side issues that are contributing to inflation, which include things like supply chains, a pandemic, war and climate change—although we won't give this government a free pass on climate change, because, let us not forget, it is one of the most fossil fuel addicted governments in the world. But we do acknowledge those supply-side shocks, but we want to hear the government start to acknowledge the role that corporate profiteering is playing.

There's been a class war underway in this country for 40 years, since Hawke and Keating turbocharged neoliberalism in the mid-1980s. And it is absolutely unarguable that the rich, the billionaire class, are winning that war. You only have to look at what happened during the first two years of the pandemic: billionaires stupendously and obscenely increased their wealth as corporate profits went through the roof. It's this corporate profiteering that is helping to push the price of things up. It's the perfect but terrible storm for working people, because wages are going backwards in real terms. Workers' pay packets are shrinking in real terms, just as everything else is getting more expensive. Now we've got the RBA coming in over the top, jacking up rates. And who's going to feel the pain? It's not the billionaires; it's not the super wealthy; it's not the corporations, or most of their shareholders—not on your life! It's not those people.

It's not the politicians, all of us in here earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, because, remember, Labor's promised we're all going to get a big fat tax cut with the stage 3 income tax cuts. We're going to get looked after. That's $240 billion of expenditure that Labor is committed to that will deliver nothing—literally nothing—to someone on the minimum wage, but we'll all get a big fat, real pay rise.

The people that are going to get hurt are the people who can't afford to buy political outcomes. It's recent homebuyers, who paid the highest price in history for their new homes, lulled by a Reserve Bank who told them there would be no interest rate rises for another two years. It's renters, many of whom are already stretched to or beyond breaking point, who will have to suck up, again, another rent rise to pay off their landlord's mortgage.

There is a better way. Introduce a corporate superprofits tax, address some of that corporate profiteering, help tackle inflation, but use the revenue to help tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Put dental into Medicare. Put mental health into Medicare. Provide free child care. Start looking after the environment that ultimately sustains us all. By treating housing as a human right and not as an investment class, we can ensure that no-one has to worry about the basic right of shelter in this country, and we can help people who are so terribly feeling the pain at the moment.

Question agreed to.

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (15:36): I give notice that, on the next day of sitting, I shall move:

That the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply to the Public Sector Superannuation Salary Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, allowing it to be considered during this period of sittings.

I also table a statement of reasons justifying the need for the bill to be considered during these sittings and seek leave to have the statement incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

PUBLIC SECTOR SUPERANNUATION SALARY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL

Purpose of the Bill

The Bill would retrospectively amend, on 1 July 1986, the Superannuation (CSS) Salary Regulations 1978 to exclude the value of rent-free housing from the calculation of default superannuation salary and put in place limited application provisions.

Reasons for Urgency

The Bill will provide certainty by excluding rent-free housing from the default definition of superannuation salary.

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Finance)

Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia) (15:38): I seek leave to postpone business of the Senate motion No. 13, standing in my name for today, until the next sitting day.

Leave granted.

The PRES IDENT (15:43): I inform the Senate that, at 8.30 am today, 36 proposals were received in accordance with standing order 75. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot. As a result, I inform the Senate that the letter from Senator Chandler proposing a matter of public importance was chosen, namely:

The failure of the Albanese Government to outline any meaningful plans to address rural and regional workforce shortages, particularly General Practitioners, that are impacting the health of Australians who live outside our capital cities

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

The PRESIDENT: I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's discussion. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Senator CHANDLER (Tasmania) (15:44): I'm pleased to speak on this matter of public importance on the topic of health, which is consistently the top priority for Australians, including Tasmanians, when it comes to the delivery of government services. In a rural and regional areas around Australia, particularly in my state of Tasmania, one of the constant challenges for small communities is their ability to attract and retain general practitioners. We see this problem regularly affecting communities, particularly in the electorate of Lyons—communities like Ouse, which has been desperately trying to find GP providers to deliver primary care to that community. Indeed, we see the same problem occur regularly around Lyons when a GP in a local practice retires or moves on. When you speak residents, medical practices and councils in any part of Lyons, whether it's Deloraine, New Norfolk, Brighton, Oatlands or the Tasman Peninsula, this is raised as a concern more often than any other topic. Communities right across Tasmania have experienced the difficulty in finding GPs to live and work in their communities. Of course, in regional areas there is often an older and less mobile population who can't simply get in a car and drive to Hobart or drive to Launceston every time they need to see a doctor. They want to be able to have that service closer to home.

This is a longstanding challenge, and there are no simple solutions. We all understand that in this place. But, in the context of that challenge for regional Tasmania, it was disappointing that the government's main election tactic in Lyons was to spread misinformation about pensioners being forced onto the cashless debit card—misinformation that they continued to spread even after independent fact checks declared it false during the election campaign. When it came to specific health policies, they flew down to Tasmania, re-announced the failed Kevin Rudd GP Super Clinics policy for major cities only, jumped on a plane and left again.

The Australian Medical Association had a particularly interesting reaction to this GP Super Clinics policy at the time, and I do want to quote the AMA president:

These centres will do little to relieve the hospital logjam, will further fragment care and will unfairly compete with nearby general practices which, without this government funding, will not be able to keep their doors open after hours.

The president went further:

… the plan acknowledges the costs faced by general practices in opening after hours but instead of enabling thousands of practices across the country to improve their offering to patients, it focusses on only 50 practices, using a model reminiscent of the failed Rudd era GP Super Clinics.

This government policy will unfairly compete with the very general practices that are already having difficulties recruiting and retaining doctors in our region or rural areas. Instead of recognising the great need in those areas of Tasmania—those areas in our regions—the super clinics are to be located only in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie.

The recent decision of the Albanese government to include urban areas in the distribution priority model further exacerbates the difficulty in attracting doctors to rural parts of Tasmania. We now have a situation where incentives designed to attract GPs to move to rural and regional areas can now be used for GPs in urban areas like Sydney. Medical practices and organisations in Tasmania have made it clear that, if GPs have a choice between living in a state capital or moving to regional Tasmania, where they are desperately needed by those communities, the likely outcome is doctors will choose the capital city and it will be regional residents that miss out. If GPs who previously had an incentive to work in rural and regional parts of Australia can now get the same incentive for working in an urban area like Sydney or Brisbane then that doesn't help. It doesn't fix the rural workforce issues; it just makes them worse. There is clearly no plan from the Labor government for rural and regional health workforces.

During the campaign, they made plenty of noise about the party being more focused on health, but, just like the commitments that they'd reduce the cost of living and power prices for Australians as soon as they got into government, we're all starting to find out that those promises were completely hollow and meaningless.

Senator GREEN (Queensland) (15:49): I'm very pleased to speak on this incredibly important issue. I don't know if Senator Chandler is a fan of RuPaul's Drag Race—it doesn't really seem like her kind of show—but there's a saying on that show that I want to repeat right now: the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption! How dare those opposite come in here and talk about the GP crisis. How dare they come in here and talk about primary health care. How dare they come in here and lecture this government about how hard it is to see a GP in rural and regional areas. We know, after nine years of neglect, that they created this problem, they made it worse, they refused to acknowledge it and they refused to do anything about it. It is absolutely disgraceful that they are now standing here and demanding plans and talking about action, when they did absolutely nothing for nine years.

The government care about people in rural and regional areas, and we care deeply about fixing the GP crisis. I can tell you from my conversations with people in regional Queensland that it is very well known that under the former government people in Emerald had to wait 12 weeks to see a GP. That means there are people right now who made an appointment when the last government was in power and are still waiting to get that appointment. The Labor government has been in power for 10 weeks; people in Emerald have to wait 12 weeks to see a GP. When those opposite were in government they refused to do anything about this. They cut Medicare, froze the Medicare rebate and drove primary health care into the ground. They refused to acknowledge that there was even an issue. When we moved a motion in the Senate to establish an inquiry to look into this issue, they voted against it. This is an issue that was created by the former government and it is an issue that the Labor government will fix. It is an issue that the Labor government cares deeply about and has a plan to fix. But it is absolutely appalling for those opposite to come in here and talk about this issue. I thank Senator Chandler for raising it. I can't think of another matter of public importance ever debated on the floor of this chamber that was more like a dorothy dixer.

We've been meeting with doctors and practice managers all across the country and with admin staff who are answering phones, and they tell us they are working incredibly hard and are just overwhelmed. That is the situation that was left behind. In the conversations I have with people working in the industry I can tell that they are desperate, and I know the community is absolutely desperate. When you can't see a GP, where do you go? You end up in the emergency department at your local hospital. We saw this time and time again through the COVID crisis—complete denial by those opposite that the lack of GP access had anything to do with emergency departments being full. They refused even to acknowledge that it was an issue.

The former government failed to improve the dire situation facing rural and regional areas; in fact, they contributed to making it worse. The lack of doctors and other medical professionals in these communities across Australia is not a new problem. It has been around for a very long time. A series of decisions by the former government during the pandemic meant that we had a spotlight put on this issue—finally, thank goodness!—but people were left with no healthcare options in their community. We want to see practical, positive solutions on the table to make sure people have access to quality health care regardless of where they live. We were noisy during the campaign and we were noisy in opposition because we knew that the government refused to acknowledge they had a crisis on their hands. We on this side of the chamber believe that if you have a Medicare card you should be able to use it, but that is not the present situation for people living in rural and regional areas.

I want to acknowledge the many people—individual residents, GPs, peak bodies, academics and others—who took time to engage with the Senate committee process, whether it was through a written submission or providing evidence at a public hearing. We heard your call. We listened. The Labor senators on that committee listened to the evidence that was being given. And here is what our government will do. I can assure the Senate that the Albanese government is committed to investing in general practice and strengthening Medicare with an almost $1 billion investment. Our Strengthening Medicare Taskforce will identify the best ways to boost affordability, improve access and deliver better support for patients with ongoing and chronic illness, backed by the $750 million in the Strengthening Medicare Fund. We made this commitment before the election and we've moved quickly. The Minister for Health and Aged Care has already appointed members to the task force and they are getting straight to work. We are working with the experts. We are making sure the experts are around the table and we are taking their advice. We are listening—something those opposite failed to do. The task force brings together Australia's health policy leaders, health professionals, and includes consumer, rural and regional, and, importantly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives.

On top of that we're working tirelessly to ensure doctors have the resources to invest in their GP practices. We're making sure the $220 million in the Strengthening Medicare GP Grants program is available to GPs to invest in their businesses. We're also investing $146 million to attract and retain more healthcare workers to rural and regional Australia, for improving training and incentive programs and supporting developing innovative models of multidisciplinary care. And our 50 Medicare urgent clinics across the country will be bulk-billed and will take pressure off the hospital system.

Those opposite can trot out whatever quotes they want from anybody, but you know what really matters: this is a policy that people in rural and regional Australia voted for. They care about these clinics. They want these clinics in their community. When you have a sick child, when you have a sick baby, and the only place you can take that child is to an emergency department, that is an indication the primary healthcare system is not working—and it wasn't working under the previous government. This is an incredibly serious issue, and it's why we are taking it so seriously. It's why we are investing in our healthcare system. It's also why we have made sure there is a distribution priority area classification system to recognise 700 areas for which either full or partial DPA classification is required.

We have not wasted any time. Our government has moved quickly and decisively when it comes to improving this crisis. We have been listening to Australians—something those opposite stopped doing years ago. We know it is hard to see a GP. We know the cost of medicines has been high, which is why health care is high on our agenda. We will reduce the cost of medicines to improve the cost of living and make it easier for people to access medicines under our government.

Finally, can I say, on a local level, that in my hometown of Cairns we are investing in rural GP places at the James Cook University. We know this is a problem that cannot be fixed overnight but if we train local doctors in rural and regional areas—something the former government refused to do—we can make sure we have a generation of doctors who stay in the regions because they've been trained in the regions. This is a commitment we made on a local level but it shows this government is planning on doing the hard, long-term work to fix this issue.

I have to say, coming back to the mover of this MPI: never in my life have I seen more hypocrisy than in this MPI, moved by a former government that refused to do anything when it came to rural and regional GP access, that voted against a Senate inquiry, that cut Medicare telehealth appointments so that people in rural and regional areas could not access telehealth, that froze the Medicare rebate, that drove primary health care into the ground and that even refused to acknowledge that this was a crisis because they voted against a Senate inquiry seeking to look into this issue. The evidence of what the former government did is on the table. And the plans from the Albanese Labor government are clear. It is what people in Australia voted for. It was the thing that got people to change their mind. It was the thing that made them change the government.

An opposition senator interjecting—

Senator GREEN: I'll take that interjection. If you'd been sitting here during my contribution—look it up in the Hansard if you like. I can tell you we're doing more than your government ever did. We're acknowledging there's an issue. We're investing in strengthening Medicare. We're making sure GPs have access to funding, and we are making sure that if you have a Medicare card you can actually use it under an Anthony Albanese Labor government. For nine years people in rural and regional areas have not been able to do that. (Time expired)

Senator RICE (Victoria) (15:59): There is no doubt the shortage of healthcare workers, including GPs, in rural and regional Australia is at absolute crisis point. We have got a massive problem, which is absolutely a sign of failure of the previous government. The previous government led us to a situation where now the crisis point is so obvious that anybody in rural and regional Australia that talks to you about access to GPs and healthcare practitioners will tell you that it is a huge problem.

The question that I find really juicy, that we need to talk about today, is what we do about it. What measures are going to be put in place by this new government to actually seriously address that problem?

I chaired the inquiry by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee into the provision of general practitioners in outer metropolitan, rural and regional Australia, and we travelled quite widely across regional Australia. I'm hoping that that inquiry will be re-referred to the community affairs committee so that we can continue our investigations.

It was eye-opening, during those hearings, to hear countless health practitioners share their concerns about the lack of access to timely and affordable health care—particularly to GPs in the bush—and to hear of the consequences for people's health. One doctor from coastal New South Wales told us: 'We're at breaking point, trying to service the needs of our community with a depleting number of very tired and very stressed doctors.' We've got doctors in rural areas working 80 or more hours a week. We've got people waiting for weeks to see their GPs. And then there's just zero accessibility to allied health practitioners. We've got a massive problem.

Our committee recommended that the government investigates substantially increasing the Medicare rebates for all levels of general practice consultations, as well as other general-practice funding options, and that we review the primary-care components of the medical education curriculum with a view to ensuring that general practice is a core component of the curriculum. These were consensus recommendations of that committee.

But, fundamentally, what we need to do is to properly fund and support health care across the board. That means actually putting the money into health care, and it means doing things like putting dental care and mental care into Medicare. It means actually spending the money and it means raising the money—it means actually saying: 'Yes, we should have a corporate superprofits tax. We should have a tax on billionaires. We should scrap the stage 3 tax cuts, which are going to cost the budget bottom line over $200 billion over the next 10 years'—and putting that money into services such as health care, education and income support, the services that the people of Australia really need. (Time expired)

Senator RUSTON (South Australia—Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (16:02): I rise today first of all to acknowledge the extraordinary effort of our medical workforce—particularly over the last 2½ years, as they have single-handedly battled in the frontline response to the COVID pandemic, and there is nowhere where these health workers have worked harder, longer or more diligently than in rural, regional and, particularly, remote Australia. I think all Australians owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of our healthcare workers across the whole country, and I would like to add the weight of our parties, the parties of the coalition, to that, as to their amazing efforts, and to thank them very much for what they have done on behalf of all Australians.

The opposition absolutely acknowledges that there are huge challenges out there at the moment in our health workforce, exacerbated significantly by the challenges that have been put forward by COVID but also because of the changing nature and landscape of rural and regional Australia. That's why, in government, we invested very heavily in making sure that we had started to put in place the things that needed to be done to make sure that we could continue the rebuild on a strong rural, regional and remote workforce. We acknowledge that there is still a long way to go, and we hope that those opposite who are now in government will continue to make sure that they prioritise rural, regional and remote health as one of the priorities of the new government, because it was something that we prioritised as the previous government.

We still find ourselves with great challenges—not the least of which is the fact that we no longer have access to an external workforce from overseas because of our borders having not been open for such a long period of time, and the lack of a response, as to seeing our borders reopen, and the lack of encouragement for people to come to Australia. We are still waiting for the jobs summit before that, apparently, is going to happen.

In government we invested a billion dollars specifically into our rural and regional health sector—including into making sure, through our Stronger Rural Health Strategy, that we were encouraging more health professionals to move into rural and regional Australia. Since we put this in place, in the space of five years over 5,000 GPs, nurses and other allied health workers were recruited to work in rural, regional and remote Australia in support of those people who choose to live outside our capital cities—making sure that they have access to appropriate health services.

Just in this last budget we added another $300 million to the previous investments; things like making sure that we were getting access to MRIs in rural and regional Australia so that people who live there did not have to travel to capital cities in order to get this really important treatment that's able to be accessed through this particular technology. We also made sure that we were continuing to invest heavily in making sure that there were Commonwealth funded places for medical students training to be GPs in rural and regional locations, because we know that people who train in rural and regional locations are much more likely to stay in those locations and support their communities once they have finished their studies.

We established two new university departments of rural health, at Edith Cowan University and in the Goldfields for Curtin University in Western Australia. We also invested through the Charles Sturt University's Rural Clinical School, and we also committed additional funding to the Rural Health Medical Training Program. Another thing that we committed to, understanding that the health outcomes in rural and regional Australia are often challenged by the tyranny of distance, was to continue to invest in Australia's favourite, I think, when it comes to rural and regional health services, the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This means that we have, over 10 years, invested nearly $1 billion in the RFDS, as well as in other flight services that have supported so many sick Australians through CareFlight and Little Wings.

So we stand by our track record of supporting rural and regional Australia, but we also understand that rural and regional Australia continues to suffer under some very significant pressures for workforce. Some of those have been exacerbated by some of the actions of the incoming government—which did not need to happen. Just as an example: one of the first things that the Labor government chose to do was to cut almost 70 telehealth services that had been put in place to enable access by telephone to your GP, recognising that at the time they were put in people often either could not get to a GP or there were health reasons why they did not want to interact in the broader community. So a telephone was one of the ways in which they could interact. In removing the telephone consultations without proper reason, rationale or advice—well, if there is, we haven't seen it—we have now excluded, disproportionately, people who live in rural and regional areas.

For example: many people who live in rural and regional areas do not have videoconferencing opportunities, so they can't video into their doctor. Their telephone line was the lifeline that they had to their health services during COVID. Seventy of these services have been cut, particularly for people with the most chronic need of health support. We condemn the decision to do that without proper advice. As I said, if there is advice it's not something that has been provided for transparency as to why that decision was made at the time that it was made—particularly when we were entering into a new wave of the COVID pandemic when, once again, Australians were needing the support, protections and measures that the COVID measures had put in place. We would also say that one of the great revolutions of the COVID pandemic was telehealth. During the first two years of the pandemic over 100 million consultations took place over telehealth, absolutely transforming Australia's healthcare system. It's something that has been of disproportionate benefit to people who live in rural and regional Australia, because often they are a very long way away from the services that they have to access if they have to do so in person.

Another issue that has been raised, significantly, around rural and regional health has been around the Distribution Priority Area classifications. Previously, this was put in place because we knew of the difficulty in attracting overseas doctors to go to rural and regional areas. By putting in place a mechanism that prioritised rural and regional areas for access to this particular workforce, we sought to try to encourage more people to go to the regions and, in doing so, alleviate some of the pressure that was our health system because of a lack of doctors. The decision by this government to expand those DPA areas means that a possibly unintended consequence is going to be that those outer metropolitan areas and larger regional centres that have now got access to the DPA classification are likely to be sucking the doctors out of those regional and rural communities which are further out and which can least afford to have those health services or those GPs removed from them. These kinds of decisions impact immensely on rural and regional Australia.

Another issue I would put on the record that indicates that this government before us has got no regard for what happens in rural and regional Australia is around their urgent care clinics. They were supposed to be prioritised into areas that had very low numbers of GPs to improve access to GPs for the people that live in those communities. During the election campaign, one of the areas that was nominated as a location for an urgent care clinic was Macnamara. Macnamara is an inner-city Melbourne electorate. Not only is it an inner-city Melbourne electorate but it actually has a ratio of doctors to patients three times higher than the average in rural and regional Australia, so you would have to question the logic behind the rationale of those opposite when, instead of supporting with incentives getting more GPs into areas where there are low numbers, they're actually prioritising protecting their own marginal electorates from an onslaught from the Greens by putting urgent care clinics into an electorate that already has three times the average number of GPs of many of our rural and regional settings.

In relation to the motion before us today concerning the failure of the government to outline any meaningful plans, I would say that the only plans that they've outlined so far have had a detrimental effect on the rural and regional workforce, particularly our GPs, and the only things that we have before us are for strengthening Medicare. What does that mean? We've got $1 billion put against it and we have no idea where that $1 billion is going to go. If our urgent care clinics are any indication of the kinds of activities that that $1 billion is going to be spent on, I wouldn't be holding my breath that it's going to go to rural and regional Australia. I'd be suggesting we'll be seeing it spent in metropolitan areas. I hope that's not the case, and I plead with those opposite: rural, regional and remote Australia needs your help. (Time expired)

Senator TYRRELL (Tasmania) (16:12): This is not my first speech. It's my first opportunity to put on record how frustrating I find this. Maybe I'm the only one who is sick to the gills of it, but we're spending an hour making speeches about how big a problem the rural GP shortage is. Couldn't we spend an hour actually doing something about it? It's hard to put into words how disconnected this all feels. The Liberals are getting up and saying that this problem is all Labor's fault. Labor is getting up and saying it's the Liberals' fault. Does it matter? This isn't about you. The big parties see every problem as the fault of the other side. Nobody ever stands up and says: 'This is our mess. This is our problem to fix.' Everybody here thinks they're cleaners sent in to tidy up after somebody else. It's painful to watch.

When regional communities lose doctors, they don't survive for long. If you're sick and you need a doctor and there isn't one where you are, you leave. You go where you need to go. And, if you need to see the doctor again, you leave again. Sooner or later, you move closer to where you need to be. That's when you leave for good. That's what we're seeing in Tasmania. It's happening in Rosebery, it's happening in Ouse and it's even happening in Dover. The song is the same across Tasmania: doctors are leaving and nobody is replacing them. Communities are crying out for help. People are flying to the mainland because that's the only way they're going to see someone quickly. What are you supposed to do if you can't afford a return airfare? What if you're too sick to get on a plane in the first place? And all we hear from the major parties is arguments over whose fault it is. The Titanic is sinking around you, and you're arguing about who's supposed to be on the lookout for icebergs.

We've got a well-intentioned policy to attract GPs to rural and regional areas, but it's obviously not working because it doesn't push GPs to work in areas where they're needed the most, and the slack is falling on local councils to pick up. Local councils are paying doctors to work in their area. They're paying to upgrade medical centres. They're offering free houses to GPs. They're paying for their office equipment, their cars, their fuel and even their phone bills. Not every council can afford to do this, and if you can't afford to compete with the larger councils, if you can't afford to offer the same benefits to GPs, you just don't get a doctor. You go without, and that's not good enough. This is not good enough. How are we supposed to pat ourselves on the back and say, 'Job done, move on,' when only wealthy communities can afford a GP? There's a word for that, and it's failure. It's a failure of everyone here, on every side of the debate—major party, minor party and independent. Until it's fixed for everyone, it's at the feet of everyone to fix it.

I want to start fixing it. I'm open to how we do it. Maybe we can offer full scholarships to young people in areas that need GPs the most, so long as they commit to returning home when they graduate with a medical degree. Maybe we can let pharmacists do more in high-need areas to take some of the burden off existing GPs. Maybe the way we classify the needs of communities has to change. In rural Tassie, about four in five doctors have been trained overseas. When we try to attract new doctors, we're competing with the rest of the world. Maybe the federal government needs to get into our corner and help us win the race for the talent.

If you've got ideas, if you want to work with me, my door is open. We can do it quietly—you can even take the credit. I don't care. Senator Lambie doesn't care. Just work with us. My office might be on the other side of the building, but it's not impossible to find. Knock on my door; I'll open it. I want to have a chat.

Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (16:16): I rise to speak on this very important MPI brought before the chamber by Senator Chandler. From day one, the Albanese Labor government proved that they do not care about regional Australia. They have proven this time and again, and we're only two months into this government.

Let me give you the clearest example of this. Last week the Albanese Labor government decided to axe the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia and the Office of Northern Australia. They abandoned Northern Australia on day one of parliament. One of our key regional areas across Australia is in the north. They made their view on the importance of rural and regional Australia very clear; that is, that they do not care about rural and regional Australia. Now, by their failure to act or to outline any meaningful plan to address rural and regional workforce shortages in the health sector, they continue to fail our rural and regional communities.

Our rural and regional communities face significant challenges and inequalities. There is still a great divide between the city and the country. As my colleague in the other place the member for Calare, Mr Gee, said only yesterday, there is a divide in income opportunities and outcomes, and if you live in a country area, your income will not be as high as if you lived in the city. There is a divide in educational opportunities between the city and the country, and there is a divide in health outcomes. What do we know? The cold hard truth is that the further you live away from the city, the younger you will die. The average life expectancy in the country is lower than in the city. It has been noted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that life expectancy decreases with remoteness. They've also noted that potentially avoidable hospitalisations can be 2.5 times higher in remote areas than in cities. Australians living in remote communities face higher levels of difficulty in accessing medical services, including GPs. And while some of the reasons for this are outside of the control of the healthcare sector, access to health services plays an important part.

This is about to get much, much more difficult for our rural and regional Australians. We know that the availability of medical practitioners—particularly GPs—has a direct impact on the health outcomes in regional, rural and remote Australia. This is why we have Distribution Priority Areas—to help identify areas in regional, rural and remote communities with unmet needs, and which are lacking important access to services by GPs. There are benefits to having DPA status. It ensures that these areas, which are lacking access to GP services, are looked after, by bringing in trained medical practitioners from overseas and participants in the Bonded Medical Program and requiring them to set up in these areas to help reduce that division between the city and the country. The DPA is crucial to the rural healthcare system, and it's the backbone of these communities.

Now, despite strong opposition from rural doctors, the Albanese Labor government is pushing ahead with their 'ill-informed' plan—as it was described by the Rural Doctors Association of Australia—to expand distribution priority areas to include peri-urban and outer metro areas. Labor have now expanded DPAs to include large regional centres and outer metro areas. They are taking away from our rural and regional communities, abandoning patients in rural and regional communities, who will be left with no access to services that are close to their homes—no access at all. They're 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'—that's how the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners described it, because the RACGP know that there is an extreme risk that rural and regional communities will lose doctors as they take up positions that are closer to the cities.

I mean, you can't blame them, really, if you're not providing those incentives and that direct support that is available to ensure that we are attracting good doctors into these remote and regional settings. This is an unintended and unwanted consequence of this ill-informed decision made by an Albanese Labor government. Despite what they've been told by those working in our rural and regional healthcare sector, they're persisting with this policy. What they should be doing is looking to encourage more of our medical students and our future doctors to choose general practice as their career, whether this is through cutting red tape or making easier and more attractive career pathways for our students. Whatever it is, they will not solve the GP shortage in rural and regional Australia by taking away from our rural and regional communities.

In the brief time that I have remaining in this MPI discussion, I want to give a shout-out to the More Than Mining campaign. This is a particular initiative that's been driven primarily by the mining industry communities, or communities that have resources-sector jobs that are close by. They're advocating for a change to how we treat the fringe benefits tax. One of the big issues in attracting staff in these areas is housing and access to affordable housing, particularly in a market that's cyclical because of the boom and bust cycle. In this moment here, in the remaining time for this MPI—the 30 seconds that I've got left—I just want to give a shout-out to those that have been advocating for this program. I remain committed to this. I think they've got some innovative ideas. Whether it's precisely the solution that they've come up with or, quite possibly, a variation of that, I think it's something that we should look closely at in enabling people that are choosing to put their roots down in regional communities to get a tax benefit in choosing to purchase homes and rent homes in these places. To increase the pool of homes that are available, to increase the stock that's available, could be a good way of actually attracting staff into these areas. I want to commend the More Than Mining campaign and the communities that have been supporting it.

Senator HANSON (Queensland—Leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation) (16:23): I thank Senator Chandler for bringing this matter to the attention of the Senate, although I am compelled to point out that the shortage of general practitioners in rural and regional Australia is a problem the coalition failed to address during the nine years it was in power. This crisis is not only risking the health and wellbeing of Australians who live in rural and regional areas; it is costing taxpayers and the economy a great deal of money.

In June this year, the Courier Mail newspaper revealed Queensland taxpayers were funding pay packages of up to $1 million a year—for each doctor—to fly in locum doctors to plug gaps in health services delivery across the state. They have been recruited in desperation, with regional hospitals in Queensland sometimes being forced to turn patients away for the lack of a doctor. Rural generalists have been offered $2,700 per day to work in Wide Bay. Radiologists have been offered up to $4,000 per day to work as locums on the Sunshine Coast. The total outlay for these fly-in locums was $118 million last year, and this cost is rising. The Queensland government spent $34 million on locums in the first quarter of this year, and it's not working. When you're sick you have the right to see a doctor there and then, not after you've recovered. But waiting times for GP appointments in regional Queensland have blown out to months. People are travelling long distances in order to see a doctor more quickly. The town of Moura in Central Queensland hasn't had a permanent GP since December and went without a doctor for more than a week back in March. Local residents were forced to resort to telehealth appointments or else drive 65 kilometres to Biloela to see a doctor.

It's no wonder doctors are leaving regional areas: the workload is horrendous and many are burnt out or exhausted. And it's not just doctors: there are shortages of a wide range of health practitioners—nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, psychologists and occupational therapists are all in short supply. Then there's aged and palliative care; the lack of these services in regional Queensland is appalling. There is not a single hospice in Queensland located north of the Sunshine Coast. This is why I fought tooth and nail for $8 million to build the Fitzroy Community Hospice in Rockhampton, and I hope the Albanese government doesn't cut out that funding.

We must do more to encourage and incentivise Australians to study medicine and to practice in the country. Importing doctors is not the solution. Up to 12,000 foreign doctors are in Australia and have applied to work here but cannot pass the standards required and many cannot even speak English, which risks misdiagnosis and adverse medical outcomes if they are ever to be allowed to work here. It is also worth noting here the impact of COVID-19 vaccine mandates: many are not allowed to treat patients because they have not taken the wonder jab. Isn't it amazing that bureaucrats think they know more than doctors about the safety and efficiency of the wonder jab?

Senator Thorpe: Here we go!

Senator HANSON: This all adds up to a potential disaster in the making. On average, Australians living in rural and regional areas have lower life expectancy and experience higher levels of disease and injury compared to people living in our cities.

Senator Thorpe: You don't care!

Senator H ANSON: Rural and regional Australia should be prioritised, not neglected. One Nation has been calling for practical solutions to be implemented, such as tightening the obligations on medical graduates under the Bonded Medical Program.

Senator Thorpe: You don't care!

Senator HANSON: At the moment, graduates have 18 years to complete an obligatory three years of practice in a regional area in exchange for a Commonwealth supported place in a medical course. It should be reduced to seven years, and the government needs to consider ways to recover the taxpayer contribution to graduate studies if they don't meet their regional obligation.

All Australians should be able to afford and access quality medical care, regardless of where they live. The taxpayers have funded this, there's a scheme put out and these students have taken it up. They suggest they will go and work in regional and regional areas, they're given 18 years to do that and they haven't taken it up. Only 500 have actually done it out of thousands. Why are we funding these students? Why hasn't the government chased it up and said, 'You made an obligation, the taxpayers have funded you now; why haven't you done your duty?' I am calling on this government now to look at that obligation, reduce it to seven years and make sure that doctors are actually given the jobs in rural and regional areas to look after all Australians as well.

Senator Thorpe: Look at yourself!

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Bilyk ): Before I call Senator Pratt, Senator Thorpe, I will ask you to stop yelling across the chamber.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe! I have asked you to—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, please respect the request of the chair. Senator Pratt.

Senator PRATT (Western Australia—Deputy Government Whip in the Senate) (16:29): When I read the MPI this morning and its topic, I was completely astonished. For a representative of a party that, while in power, dismantled and starved our rural and regional health workforce of funding and employment opportunities to bring on an MPI on this topic, to my mind, was extraordinary. I will go into the detail and unpack that—perhaps they were taking more credit in looking at their own policies in a blinkered way without seeing what was going on?

We saw years of neglect of our Medicare system by the coalition. In my own home state, if you look at rural and regional Western Australia, the spending on Medicare per head of population is proportionately so much lower than anyone in a metropolitan area. People do not have access in rural and regional Western Australia to the health professionals, such as doctors and specialists, that they should be able to go and see. The lack of access to health professions is very much reflected in the per head spending on Medicare around regional WA when compared to the Perth metropolitan area. So I wonder, really, what's going on in the heads of those opposite. While, in your time in government, you ripped billions of dollars out of primary care and caused gap fees to rocket, so we will clean up that mess left by the Liberal Party—but this is not going to be easy.

The last government arbitrarily axed the ability of a long list of communities to recruit overseas trained doctors to fill gaps in general practice as well as those in outer suburbs and the regions. There's a dire need not only in regional WA but also in Perth communities. In Western Australia last year a well-known paediatrician died, a paediatrician who had a high case load. As a result of that, the waiting list to get in to see a paediatrician blew out for everyone by more than a year. It wouldn't matter if you were a high-needs family or child or not; you could not get in to see a paediatrician for more than a year. This is the legacy of the historical underfunding of our medical—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Bilyk ): Senator Pratt, can you assume your seat for a moment. Senator O'Sullivan, I've asked you once already to stop interjecting. Interjections are disorderly. Please stop interjecting. Senator Pratt.

Senator PRATT: So the Labor Party initiated the Senate inquiry into GP shortages in the last parliament. We heard mountains and mountains of evidence from people not being able to see a GP at all, about having to wait many months for an appointment, having to travel hours when they finally do get to see one. This is why Labor has deliberately not changed the regional incentive payments that doctors receive for working in remote Australia. It's why we recognise the importance of providing additional incentives for doctors to work in those remote and regional communities. So I find this extraordinary that Senator Chandler, now that she's lost the power of being in government on these issues, suddenly appears interested in these issues.

The government funds a range of program incentives to encourage GPs to relocate and work there, in addition to the distribution priority area program. So, while we have this architecture, we know that we have to prioritise improving it. We have our Strengthening Medicare Taskforce now. This task force met last Friday. It's tasked with finding the best ways to boost affordability, improve access and deliver better support for patients, especially for payments with ongoing and chronic illnesses. This work, their work and their findings, will be backed by the $750 million Strengthening Medicare Fund.

We know that our health professionals have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic. They are working tirelessly now. I have two aged parents—one of whom has significant health conditions—who are at home in quarantine, as they recently tested positive with COVID. But they have a good GP that's checking in on them, and they also have the resourcing of the state government. We know it's critically important that we resource our doctors to look after Australians, to provide them the care they need. This is, in particular, why we are investing some $220 million in GP practices around Australia. This will be incredibly important to rural and regional Australia.

We also have a plan to invest $146 million to attract health workers to, and retain them in, rural and regional Australia. This includes improving training and incentive programs and supporting the development of innovative models of multidisciplinary care. We are going to boost workforce incentives for rural and regional GPs to support the engagements of nurses, allied health and other health professionals and provide multidisciplinary team based care—also critically important. We are also going to expand the innovative models of the collaborative care program across rural and regional Australia, because we know support to retain our rural health professionals is absolutely critical.

There are so many practical steps that governments can and should take to support the rural and regional workforce here in Australia. This includes, for example, a constituent case that recently came through my office, where the only psychiatrist in the Pilbara in Western Australia that is there to service and is qualified to meet the needs of children can't stay in Australia because she has a child with autism. Clearly the state government is now making appeals to the Commonwealth government, saying, 'These are the kinds of issues that we need to fix.' And I know, sitting on the government benches, that these are indeed the kinds of issues that we need to fix and that your government, on a day-to-day basis, was absolutely missing in action on.

We are also here to expand the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program to more than 1,000 placements in rural and regional Australia per year and strengthen rural generalist and GP registrar training as well as provide Australians access to universal, prompt, world-class medical care—something that has been ignored by those opposite for too long. We want to see our rural and regional communities right around Australia get the access they deserve—access, like I said, to universal, prompt, world-class medical care. No-one in our nation deserves to face a multiyear wait for vital treatments simply due to where they live.

Whilst I can see that those opposite recognise these issues now that they're in opposition, I am very pleased to stand up here and debate them on it. You were silent for eight years on all these issues. Not once did I come in here and see you prioritise these needs. Instead, we got the glib 'all announcement and no delivery'. The proof will be in the pudding. We are early in our term and we know we have to get on and implement these measures, whereas those opposite were all announcement and no delivery year after year. We are here with a commitment in the Labor Party to building our public healthcare system right across remote and regional Australia. (Time expired)

Senator DAVEY (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the National Party) (16:39): I just want to acknowledge I actually heard some very good news from Senator Pratt in her contribution. I was very relieved to hear that the new government will be continuing the former coalition government's model of multidisciplinary team based care, which I had the pleasure of announcing the pilot for under the former regional health minister, Mark Coulton. So I'm very pleased that our coalition government policy will be continued.

I'm also pleased to hear that the regional training programs will be continued, such as the Murray-Darling Basin medical school—which recognises that, if you train in the regions, you're more likely to stay in the regions—and our rural generalist pathways. I hope that includes the rural generalist pathways for registered nurses and allied health professionals as well. I didn't hear whether the new government will continue, as we termed in the pilot, the Murrumbidgee single employer model, which improves the working conditions and the contractual arrangements for GPs who move to regional areas. That was something that our government implemented.

What I didn't hear from Senator Pratt is how the new government's changes to the distribution priority areas are going to help us achieve an increase in the rural and regional health workforce. How can the new government look people in the eye and say that an overseas trained doctor should get the same incentives and benefits to work in Newcastle as they would if they were going to work in a GP clinic in Cessnock or Scone? How can they say that they're putting these hard-fought for, overseas trained doctors in bonded Australian medical places in Western Sydney compared to Broken Hill or Burke? It doesn't stack up. There are already significant inequalities—yes, our government was in place for nine years and, yes, we put in the hard yards, because there is no silver bullet on this issue. We acknowledge there is no silver bullet. But we worked very hard talking to the Rural Doctors Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the allied health professionals on how to address this issue, on how to train more in the regions and retain more in the regions.

This one policy announcement by the new government has the Rural Doctors Association of Australia now warning that they are 'fearful' for rural communities right across Australia that are now at extreme risk of losing their doctors as they take up positions closer to the cities, abandoning their rural and remote patients who will be left with no access to care close to home. They went further and made a harrowing call that Labor's policies will cost the lives of rural and remote patients who already suffer poorer health outcomes than their city counterparts.

Just this afternoon I had a meeting with council representatives from Far North Queensland. They told the story of how, in their small community, they have a doctor, they have a district nurse, and they have a policeman, but how, if there is a road trauma or an accident overnight due to workplace fatigue management—which is a very serious issue in regional areas—there is a snowball effect. They would love to have the extra workforce. But how can they compete if we're saying that the distribution priority areas can have someone in Townsville rather than in remote Far North Queensland?

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has noted that these hospitalisations in rural areas can be avoided by getting more GPs out there. The Labor Party's policy will not do that. (Time expired)

The PRESIDENT (17:07): Pursuant to order, I now call Senator David Pocock to make his first speech and ask senators that the usual courtesy be extended to him.

Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory) (17:07): [simultaneously interpreted into Auslan] I would like to start by acknowledging that we are on Ngunnawal country. I'd like to pay my respect to their elders past and present. I'd also like to acknowledge all First Nations people here this afternoon. It's a privilege to call Ngunnawal country home. Canberra, the 'meeting place' of our nation, is usually talked about as a young city, but we live in a place that has been inhabited and looked after for tens of thousands of years, hundreds and hundreds of generations. We live in a country with an enviable democracy, a vibrant multicultural community, overachievers on the world stage, abundant natural resources, staggering—if unequally distributed—national wealth, awe-inspiring beauty and the oldest continuous living cultures in the world.

Like many Australians, I came here from distant shores. The story of Zimbabwe is one that is well known. My own family story has been told many times. This is not a story of my family alone but of so many families who now call Australia home. I am grateful to my mom and dad, Andy and Jane, who are here this afternoon, for leaving all they knew to give me and my brothers more opportunity. Again, there are many others who have done this. I would like to acknowledge the contribution immigrants continue to make to our country. I am obviously white—moon tan white, as many of my former teammates would remind me!—and I don't want to conflate my experiences of migration with the many migrants whose experience is shaped by the colour of their skin. We are making progress as a country, but it's in all of our interests to continue doing the work to build a more inclusive society that celebrates difference and diversity.

I grew up on a farm, and, despite seeing the challenges of farming—like a freak hailstorm destroying our crops the week before we started picking, and you've got a massive overdraft—agriculture's always drawn my attention, pulling me back time and again. Growing up on a farm instilled in me the importance of hard work and an understanding of how small and insignificant we are, in the face of nature, how at the mercy of the elements we are. It also sparked in me a love of nature and a fascination with the natural world. Unable to escape the pull of our relationship with the land, I went on to study ag and have been involved in farming and conservation projects.

While our modern national psyche may be more and more urbanised, and, collectively, we may no longer consider ourselves an agricultural society or deeply connected to the land, we still are. There is no civilisation, as we know it, without agriculture. Our society cannot be sustained without the people who spend their life on the land, whose blood, sweat and tears and generations of knowledge help feed and clothe us, farmers who love their land and need our recognition and support.

We are part of nature, and our long-term wellbeing as families, communities and nations is totally linked to our ability to cooperate with one another, to meet our needs, to build communities based on respect and equality, while also maintaining the health of the land that sustains us. As we know, we aren't doing a particularly good job at this, and, as a result, we're facing some serious challenges. Like many colleagues here in the Senate, I stand here wanting to take on these challenges, to find ways to build the kind of future where we can all thrive.

I stand here as a result of the work of the many others, of proACT, Canberra's very own 'Voices of' movement, led by Clare Doube, Glenn Cummings, Laurie Dunn, Steph Harvey, Cam Reid and others. This group of Canberrans were frustrated with politics and dared to believe that they could change it. My success was due to the more than 2,000 amazing volunteers, some of them joining us today, who joined the campaign.

Despite what you see on the news, Canberra is so much more than the sum of the decisions made in this building. Yes, we're a city of roundabouts and politicians, but we're also so much more than that. We're a growing city with a strong community spirit, built on a passion for lifelong learning, good public policy, a connection to our environment, the arts, sport, defence, science and technology. We're appropriately called the Bush Capital, from Namadgi and Tidbinbilla, down south, all the way up to Mulligans Flat, in the north, and all the other places that we know and love.

We have a vibrant and growing multicultural community. We're also home to five universities, hosting tens of thousands of students with researchers and young leaders tackling some of our most complex problems. Universities should be accessible and affordable to all who want to study, regardless of their background or chosen field. We must continue to fund research for the public good. As the pandemic so starkly highlighted, our need for this is great and ongoing.

Many Canberrans work in complete service to our nation: the world-leading scientists at the CSIRO and their tireless contribution in research and helping solve the problems we face; those serving our nation in defence, from ADFA to Duntroon and the thousands working on our physical and cyber security; our public servants, some 60,000 dedicated, professional, passionate people who work for our communities across more than a hundred federal departments and agencies; our national institutions that tell the stories of where we've come from and who we are. We're also a city of tradies, nurses, teachers, hospo workers, service staff of all kinds, construction workers, professionals and innovators. No matter what job Canberrans do, they care about the future of this city. They care about the people who live there and they care about making our whole country better.

That's why, when I was asked by people in our community to have this first speech live-translated into Auslan, I didn't hesitate to say yes. So thank you, Mandy, for being here today and translating my words. I understand that the difference between Mandy being there in the Broadcasting studio and here on the floor of the chamber is the difference between accessibility and inclusion. Today we've achieved the former but not the latter, and in future I hope we can achieve both.

Our territory faces many of the challenges faced in other parts of the country. We're in the midst of a housing crisis. We struggle to attract and retain the healthcare workers needed to care for our growing population. Our businesses are struggling to find staff and keep their doors open. Too many of our elderly have been left without dignity in the very facilities designed to care for them. So many people have had to fight for the support they need under the NDIS. The cost-of-living crisis is creating a new class of working poor—and, in some cases, working homeless—in our suburbs. People in our community face mental health challenges, often without the funds or ability to access the services they need to get help. Too many are employed in insecure work, leaving them vulnerable to the rapidly changing economic conditions. The changing climate is changing our lands, making us more prone to extreme heat and bushfires, severe weather events and species extinction. Invasive species are destroying our unique habitats and wildlife. These are all challenges that are being felt across the country. We share in them. We understand them. And we want a hand and a voice in solving them, for the benefit of our community and the nation.

Here in the ACT, we've been denied rights held by the states. It's time for us to restore the right of the territories to make decisions for themselves—to ensure that our Legislative Assembly here in the ACT gets to make decisions about the future of Canberrans, not MPs from around the country whose own constituents already enjoy these same rights. Yesterday, legislation to restore our rights as a territory was introduced into the House of Representatives. This is not the first time the parliament has tried to repeal the Andrews bill, but I hope it will be the last. I will work with everyone in the Senate chamber to support a vote giving us equality with the states. I would like to acknowledge the many brave, courageous people who have supported this campaign over many years and those I spoke to ahead of the election—not least of all, those who decided to speak out, including Samuel Whitsed and Sam Delaney, who I'm honoured to have here today.

Beyond territory rights, there are many issues before us. With trust in political institutions at worrying lows, this parliament has the opportunity to begin to restore the faith of Australians in both government and governance. From increasing transparency to the implementation of a robust integrity commission, to reforming political donations and truth in political advertising laws, we have a real chance to strengthen our democracy and ensure Australians can trust in the decisions that are being made in their name. We also need greater protection for whistleblowers who take great risks in service of the public good.

We have an opportunity to enshrine in our Constitution a First Nations Voice to parliament. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a generous offer to all Australians to enshrine a voice that can guide the treaty-making and truth-telling process that we need, to move towards reconciliation. Aunty Pat Anderson is here tonight. Alongside Professor Megan Davis, Aunty Pat oversaw the largest deliberative process with Indigenous people on Australia's Constitution in our nation's history, and I would like to acknowledge Aunty Pat here tonight.

There is no greater challenge than facing up to the climate and biodiversity crises we face. We live in truly unprecedented times. Generations before us faced their own unprecedented times: world wars; famines; pandemics; natural disasters. Many of our forebears put their lives on the line to build what they saw as a brighter future. Many lost their lives doing so. Others gave up their freedoms to build a more equitable society—activists who were at the time vilified, arrested and even killed, many of whom we now hold up as heroes for their lives of service and commitment to building a better future.

Today the systems that sustain life on earth are at the brink of collapse. The climate as we know it is breaking down, and the impacts are now being felt with distressing regularity. Extreme weather, drought, bushfires, hailstorms and floods are having a devastating effect.

We're also seeing the impacts on the state of the environment. The sixth mass extinction event is underway. The last one 66 million years ago was due to a massive asteroid. This time we're causing it. As farmer and writer Wendell Berry said:

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.

It's on us to make the changes, and it's not too late.

In the midst of this doom and gloom is an invitation to begin to turn things around. Thanks to ancient Indigenous wisdom and the latest in science and technology, we have never known more about these life support systems, what we're doing to them and what can and must be done to halt this catastrophic decline and begin to reverse it. We know what we're doing and we know what we need to do. We are one of the first generations with this knowledge and probably the last to be able to do anything about it. Some of our failure has been a failure of imagination, a failure to imagine how great our future can be. Our future can be great if we actually focus on the things that matter—the long-term health and wellbeing of our families, our communities and our land. This takes courage and leadership.

It seems to me that a big part of politics is about dealing with problems in a way that turns them into opportunities. We have an opportunity to begin to write a new story, a better story, a story that is built on accepting responsibility for where we are and finding the courage to change where we are going. This is not about naive thinking or just hoping for the best; it's about a new kind of pragmatism where our actions actually match the scale of the challenges.

While I have already thanked many of the people whose efforts and contribution helped bring me to this place I would like to make mention of a few others. There are the many elders whose knowledge and wisdom is recorded in books. I am grateful for my brothers, Mike and Steve, and the lessons we continue to learn together. There is my family, now scattered across the country and across the globe, and there are those like the Trathounds, the Stirzakers, the Saunders, the Mulabears, the Mastersons, the Motutus, the Clarkes and the O'Keefes, who have treated Emma and I like family. To Rick and Tracey Laird, Brian Walker, Nick Able, George, Robert Bump, Funuluga, the rains lands regeneration team, the Bartbridge farmers and many others: I thank you. And of course, my wife, my friend, Emma: thank you. To my incredible team who worked tirelessly to serve the people of the ACT, whose brilliance and enthusiasm astounds me every single day—Fiona, Sam, Rory, Katja, Lincoln, Tom: thank you.

To my new colleagues: thank you for your care for our great country. I hope through debate and collaboration we can find ways to deal with these great challenges we face and make a real difference in the lives of those we represent. Not only is it the first time the ACT has had an independent senator; it's the first time we've had someone on the crossbench with the balance of power. I intend to use that power in the best interests of the people of the ACT to achieve practical outcomes, like pushing the Commonwealth to forgive our historic social housing debt. It's been done for Tasmania. It's been done for South Australia. It's time to do it for us. For too long we have been neglected, ridiculed, looked down at or flat-out ignored. Canberra is the nation's capital. I want this to once again be a source of great pride. No longer are we a safe seat. Investment now has to flow into much-needed infrastructure, including community infrastructure. The days of the ACT getting less than a quarter of its fair share of infrastructure funding by head of population are over. We also need more equitable representation, and that's an argument I look forward to prosecuting over my term. We need to continue our legacy of leadership on everything from marriage equality to the smart energy transition, which we so desperately need to accelerate across the country.

I laughed recently when I read some commentators calling me a kingmaker. It's certainly not a mantle I seek; instead, I'd prefer to try and be a peace broker in the 47th Parliament. The challenges facing us are so important. I want to be part of making sure we don't just end the climate wars but we win them—we win them and we start to lead as a country on climate action and biodiversity conservation.

I'm not here to stand in the way. I'm here to offer my perspective as a representative of Canberra, Jervis Bay and Norfolk Island in the hopes that we can make politics about people. For me, part of doing that is making sure this place and the business we do in it better lives the values of the people who we've been sent here to represent. So, finally, I'd like to say thank you to the people of the ACT. Whether you voted for me or not, I'll work on your behalf for the next three years. I'm committed to being accessible and transparent, and I certainly know that you'll hold me to account. Thank you.

The PRESIDENT (17:30): Pursuant to orders, I now call Senator Shoebridge to make his first speech and ask senators that the usual courtesies be extended to him.

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (17:30): [simultaneously interpreted into Auslan] President, for more than 2,000 generations, First Nations peoples have lived in this land, raising their children in culture and on country according to law passed down through generations. There's wisdom and power in this history that this parliament refuses to acknowledge, but I acknowledge it here, and I recognise the long history of First Nations led resistance to violent dispossession and genocide.

This place is on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. I was born on Dharug and Kuringgai land, and my family and I live on Gadigal country. And everywhere in between and across this extraordinary land is Aboriginal land. I look around this chamber and I see and respect the growing number of First Nations senators in this place, including my two powerful Greens colleagues, Lidia Thorpe and Dorinda Cox. I acknowledge that, for as much as time means anything to us as humans, this land always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

As Greens, we're here to do more than keep the bastards honest. Yes, we'll push this government further and faster on things that matter—on climate change, on integrity and on fairness. More than that, though, we're here to change the system—to make it represent the many and not just the few. You've told us what you care about, and we hear you. We're ready to make changes. We're ready to legalise cannabis. We're going to tax billionaires to deliver dental and mental health care into Medicare. And we'll fight to keep coal and gas in the ground.

Greens MPs and senators aren't sent here by a powerful few to serve their interests. We, in fact, come from a proud history of protest, resistance and grassroots activism. As a member of the New South Wales Greens, I owe a particular debt to the green bans movement of Jack Mundey and the BLF, which began in the 1970s. Jack saw earlier than most—

The PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, just a moment, please. I would ask the gallery to hold their applause until the end.

Senator SHOEBRIDGE: I think that's harsh, President, but I'll take it! Jack saw earlier than most how social and environmental struggles are inextricably linked. I stood with Jack on that last successful green ban he was involved with, to protect the beautiful Bondi Pavilion from destruction, and I learned from Jack. Judy, Jack's partner in life and activism, is here with us today. Working as a young lawyer, I also had the opportunity to act for building workers and the construction union—part of Jack's old union. I saw directly how collective union action was essential to face down the threats to individual workers, to protect conditions and to uphold safety standards.

In that work, I had my first taste of real-world politics. I acted for the union in the viciously anti-union Cole royal commission set up by John Howard, and I was also sent in to oppose the then state Labor government's push to strip back workers compensation rights, making it even harder for injured workers to live in dignity. In fact, it was in that political stoush that I first saw Greens in action in parliament. I saw Lee Rhiannon and one of her staff members, John Kaye, listen to the concerns of working people, understand the history and go in to bat for them when no-one else would. That was the early 2000s, and it was also a time of mass movements—mass movements against war, with hundreds of thousands of us marching for peace. As we marched all across this country this place ignored the calls for peace and, apart from Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle, barely ruffled a feather as Australia went off to another unjust war.

So, as a lifelong bushwalker, things were coming together for me: social and environmental justice, peace and political action. I joined the Greens, and look what that has done! In fact, it's remarkable to think that almost 20 years ago to the day, Kerry Nettle delivered her first speech in this parliament as the first-ever Greens Senator in New South Wales—thanks, Kerry, for all your work. And today, I enter the Senate as a Green in one of a record 16 Greens elected in this parliament. And I'm also part—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

The PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, everyone in this place needs respect the rules around the chamber and I would ask that applause be left until the end. Thank you, please continue.

Senator SHOEBRIDGE: Thank you. I enter the Senate as a Green, and one of a record 16 elected Greens in this place. And I'm also part of a growing global Greens movement. That's a movement of solidarity that sees our challenges collectively and realises we all share this one planet, our only planet, and we'd better not stuff it up. So, yes, for all those conspiracy types from the fringe right: it's all true! We do think and act globally, and then we act locally. It's all true! We're all in on it. We all have plans to replace cars with trains, bikes and ferries; coal-fired power stations with wind farms and batteries; and private with public. And then, when we have you distracted, we're going to sneak up behind you, tax a few billionaires and then socialise medicine by whacking dental and mental into Medicare. It's just that, unlike others, we're conspiring in the open, and it's to save the planet, not to own it.

I've always found that the more I am among people struggling for change, the more inspired I am to get into places like this and fight for the future. I'm a believer in renewable power and my batteries are charged when I'm out amongst all of you, hearing your stories, gathering ideas and being directed by people's everyday struggles for decency and justice. I get this when I work with Don Craigie—Uncle Duck—seeking justice for his nephew's death on rail tracks south of Tamworth. I get it working with Grandmothers Against Removals, fighting for First Nations families. I get it when I stand alongside survivors of institutional abuse to demand and then deliver laws that bend towards justice. And I get it when I work alongside the Bowraville families as they take on a racist criminal justice system that discounts the murder of their children. Their struggles should be parliament's struggles and, as Greens, we'll make that happen.

It's when we stand together and we look out for each other that we can really change the world. It's when we see how much we have in common that we don't divide ourselves. We look across the globe; that's when we're strongest. And in our struggle for justice, it's inspiring to work with communities across this country that share our values. It's why I'm honoured to have members of the Kurdish community here, and I'm so thankful for their trust in the Greens and me. It's why I'm so thankful for the support from the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, and from all those across the Indian diaspora who are in the gallery and who share our values of tolerance, democracy and peace. Whether it's the struggle for Palestinian justice, or Kashmiri or Kurdish self-determination, we know that human rights need to be seen as global rights and very much the business of this parliament.

On this land, First Nations justice must be core to all that we do. Yes, that's heritage and culture but it's also taking action on incarceration, racist laws, economic empowerment and treaty. It means ending forced child removals. It means not locking up kids. It means truth and treaty, and land back. No party can claim to be in favour of reconciliation and First Nations justice while supposing mandatory sentencing laws, expending prisons, racist policing and child removals.

I've seen this happening firsthand during my work in the New South Wales parliament. Just this year, I've seen New South Wales Labor flip from supporting to opposing a Greens bill that would have prevented racist child removals and empowered First Nations children and communities, and they flipped after a 20-minute talkback radio spray from a right-wing shock jock. In that single backflip, broken politics stole thousands of futures. Those are the politics that keep jailing 10-year-old First Nations kids in Don Dale prison. Those are the politics that strip mine First Nations' land and ship the profits off to Switzerland or London or New York. These politics are deadly in all the wrong ways.

We can't solve those problems by listening to the Daily Telegraph or the Herald Sun. We'll solve them by listening to the likes of Aunty Hazel Collins and her daughter, Helen Eason, because it was Aunty Hazel who taught me the truth about First Nations child removals. Hazel taught me how FACS then DOCS then DCJ were taking babies from her country. She told me about First Nations mums in her town who still hide their kids when a white government car drives up. She taught me about the trauma to her family when their babies were stolen. And Helen, her daughter, has taught me about strength and resilience. After years of disrespect and struggle, Helen is now running her own healing centre, doing what the government wouldn't, and she's got her whole family around her. Helen and Hazel and the many other First Nations people I've had the privilege to work alongside have patiently taught me the strength, the power of the oldest continuous culture on this planet, who will never stop fighting for and protecting their families and their country, and that's a lesson this whole country needs.

Governments show us their priorities by who they shower with attention and cash, and who they make wait. And in this country young people, people on Centrelink, people with disability, First Nations peoples, people without a home are all being told to wait. They can wait, while a handful of mining and property billionaires are literally raking it in, and the next budget will see Labor and the coalition joining together to hand out over $200 billion in stage 3 tax cuts to the super wealthy—like they need it!

I see economic justice as essential human rights and justice work, and that means resisting the system that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing, the system that values forests only as woodchips, the system that accepts the state of your teeth as a marker of class, the system that takes homelessness and hunger as just a cost of doing business, the system that overfunds private schools and cheats public education, and the system that's literally devouring a planet and our future just for profit.

Yes, it's true that political decisions and loyalty are being bought by donations by big corporates and fossil fuel corporations, but it's also true that the loyalty of the political class in this country is with the billionaires. It's with the billionaires, with the self-importance of parliament, and it's not with the people. So let's change things. Let's see every billionaire as a policy failure, and, instead of firing them off to Mars, let's tax them back to Earth. Let's stop hearing how we can't afford a safe, quality home for everyone, how we can't afford free early childhood education, how we can't afford to lift people out of poverty, how we can't afford action on climate change. We can, we will and we must.

If we are to survive and thrive, then we don't have a choice. We need to keep coal and gas in the ground. This isn't a 43 per cent issue or a 75 per cent issue. The science is telling us that for Australia, with its globally-significant fossil fuel deposits, it's a 100 per cent issue.

After the 2019-20 Black Summer fires, I travelled around my beautiful state of New South Wales. I met communities in deep shock, surrounded by ash-white and eerily silent forests. It's the silence that still gets me—just these dead forests stretching on and on. I saw towns sliced down the middle by fire. It was a window into our worst future. More recently, the window has cranked further open, as we've seen severe storms and floodwater inundate Brisbane, repeatedly swamp parts of my home town of Sydney and devastate—literally devastate—towns like Lismore.

This isn't normal. This isn't safe. If we get the politics right, it can be halted, and, over time, it can be reversed. But, if we get the politics wrong, this destruction is just the start. Now, that's one hell of a responsibility on all of us.

The truth is that we are in a climate and extinction crisis and that our laws just refuse to acknowledge it. Our laws will put people in jail for graffiti but not for destroying an ecosystem. That's literally cooked. Surely it's time to enact a new criminal offence of ecocide. Ecocide is the mass, widespread damage and destruction of ecosystems in nature. It is—or at least should be—criminal when it's done by corporations or politicians or governments intentionally or recklessly. So, instead of a short-lived Twitter backlash and a revolving door taking you from politics into a six-figure consultancy, if you gladhand a fossil fuel project that screws our collective future, you get 20 years in jail. That sounds more than fair to me. That's the kind of accountability I'd vote for, and I'd backdate it to today.

Saving the planet and delivering on fairness and transparency is surely going to require some serious renovation of this democracy. With the major parties' votes shrinking, a growing chorus of voters have elected Greens, Independents and minor-party MPs to this place. They did that because they want a new style of politics that's focused on them, the people, not on us. From my short observation, over the last few days, of this parliament, it still operates on a model of politics that is performative and combative. It's all about brand differentiation rather than about delivering real change. It doesn't have to be that way.

Talk of traditions and convention is already being used by government ministers as code for preventing us from making this place more real, more accessible and ultimately more useful. Conventions are also being used to maintain the government's domination of the agenda and time in this place, in the Senate, which is bizarre when you realise they only have 26 of 76 members. That's just over a third. It's an equation that makes no sense to me. I am hopeful that sometime, sooner rather than later, these numbers will be used to provide far greater scrutiny, transparency and accountability of the executive. Last time I checked, that's meant to be a core job of the Senate.

To my friends and mentors in politics, the first of which is John Kaye—we lost John in 2016. John was smarter, more principled, more hardworking than anyone else I've tried to keep up with. I chased him around the state parliament for about five years. I still miss him. Having John's partner, Lynne Joscelyn, with us now holds that link for me. Thanks for coming, Lynne.

I acknowledge, in the gallery, three former New South Wales elected Greens: Lee Rhiannon, Sylvia Hale and Michael Organ. Lee, I can't thank you enough for your friendship, kindness, generosity and support. Sylvia taught me about bravery in politics. I took her spot in the New South Wales parliament. I don't think I'll ever top Sylvia, who, a bit over a decade ago, asked the notorious New South Wales property developer Ron Medich in budget estimates if he had any involvement in the brutal murder of his business partner, Michael McGurk. We all wanted the question asked. I remember the united howls of outrage from Medich and from all the other MPs when Sylvia asked it. But Sylvia knew about the New South Wales development industry, and she knew she was right. We now have that answer, and Ron Medich is working his way through a 39-year prison sentence. So I hope I can be as brave as Sylvia and Lee in my work here. I also recognise Michael Organ as the first Greens member to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Michael, it must be lovely to look across this building and see four Greens—thanks to that 'Greenslide'—occupying the benches you first sat on.

I also want to thank the team that ran an extraordinary federal election campaign in New South Wales: James Ryan, Kilty O'Brien, Lucy Small and Aish Cowgill, who worked closely with me on the Senate run, and all the statewide team. I owe special thanks to our amazing 47 lower house candidates. They worked for months on end making direct contact with people, persuading them, one by one, how different politics could be. I owe you all my place in parliament, and I hope to see a bunch of you join us here in three years time.

To my New South Wales parliamentary friends and colleagues from across the political spectrum, but especially to Abigail Boyd who is here tonight: thank you for your comradeship. To be honest, I have a bit of FOMO as I see my former committee, the Public Accountability Committee, slicing through the latest New South Wales 'parliamentary jobs for mates' scandal. But I also see how the structures we built together in the New South Wales parliament over the last 10 years are working to force accountability on an unwilling government. I can tell you, whatever else it is, New South Wales politics sure is a masterclass in scandal, corruption and abuse of power, lessons that will certainly come in useful here.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

Senator SHOEBRIDGE: I think laughing's disorderly too! My thanks too to the unsung heroes of New South Wales politics and the now hundreds of Greens councillors I've worked with. Thanks for every tree you've saved and planted, for every park you've protected, for every solar panel you've installed, every meeting you've suffered through and every resident that you helped. As a recovering councillor myself, I see how that work underpins Greens politics and I thank you for it.

I also want to thank the many members of the Greens, especially those here today. Your trust keeps me going, and I can always count on you to keep me busy and to loudly call me out when I, inevitably, stuff things up. Thanks to the party, thanks to the members, thanks to the movement.

To my brother Michael, his wife, Margaret, and my nieces and nephew, Gabrielle, Leah and Dominic—all this travel to Canberra has one big silver lining—I'll be able to spend more time with all of you, and that's a genuine blessing. My mum's also in the chamber. Thanks, Mum. It means a lot to me. Dr Tsang, my father-in-law, my daughters' tireless Gung Gung, is also in the gallery—just as he's been everywhere else when we've needed him—and to Chi, who can't be here but is watching at home with Lester: thank you for your love, support and countless delicious dinners. You both help make our little Sydney family very, very special.

To my lifelong partner, Patricia, and my daughters, Jessica and Hannah: you keep all of this in perspective. I can't imagine life without you, and I love you all more than fits in any one speech. To my amazingly talented oldest daughter, Jess, who's stuck at Camp Woollahra doing her HSC trials: Jess, I'm sorry about the timing and I promise to make it up to you—and you will smash it. Han, my No. 1 youngest daughter: you are funny, bright, generous and talented. In short, you take after your mum.

Patricia, thank you for being here today and the years of support, love and grounding. I'm sorry there weren't more facts in this speech, but here's one big fact. You, Jess and Han are far more important to me than any of this, and when I'm working here, absent from you all, it's because of you and it's for you.

So now it's time to turn those shouts of joy and those whoops of delight that followed the election into action and make this place live up to the democratic promise—because we have a planet to save. So let's get started.

Senator BILYK (Tasmania) (17:57): Before my speech on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022 was interrupted, I was talking about the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme and how important it was. It was introduced in 1985 by the Hawke government. This initiative is particularly important to mention because it relates directly to the bill we're debating now. Through NEIS, individuals can receive a package of services that helps them to establish a new business. More recently, it has also helped existing business owners impacted by COVID-19 to continue running their businesses or refocus their operations to meet new areas of demand. Since NEIS was introduced, it has helped over 198,000 people. As I was saying, there are a number of supports available through NEIS, including accredited small-business training, help to develop a business plan, personalised mentoring from an NEIS provider and, if you are eligible, NEIS allowance for up to 39 weeks and NEIS rental assistance for up to 26 weeks.

NEIS can potentially be a great option for jobseekers. If someone has a business idea they'd like to try out which is likely to be commercially viable, NEIS provides the flexibility to allow them to put their energy into pursuing that idea without having to apply for jobs in the meantime. After all, when someone is making a genuine effort to secure a regular income then why place restrictions on whether they do it through employment or self-employment? While some people are happy working for someone else, there are others who like the choice, the control and the freedom that comes with self-employment. There are many people who struggle with traditional employment but thrive in an environment where they can be their own boss.

It's interesting to note that people with disability, because of the challenges they face in having their skills recognised, are 40 per cent more likely to be self-employed than the rest of the population. Clearly, there is much more work to be done to overcome discrimination against people with disability and to recognise the valuable skills and talents they have. But I am also glad that so many people with disability have had a chance to put their skills to use in a way that also gives them freedom and control.

The success of NEIS is not just in its ability to help people establish their own business; it also helps establish businesses that survive and thrive. Three months after exiting the program, 82 per cent of NEIS participants remained in employment and 68 per cent were still running their business. The fact that NEIS has continued for 37 years through governments of both persuasions is a testament to its success and the esteem in which it is held. The Department of Education, Skills and Employment website features many success stories about how the program has helped people pursue their business ideas.

Several other success stories appeared in the booklet celebrating the 30th anniversary of the scheme. One of my favourites, because it is from my home state of Tasmania, is that of Social Circus Tasmania. Christian and Staja Florence established the business in 2012. The idea behind Social Circus Tasmania is to engage individuals, groups, families and communities in circus workshops to build teamwork, trust, determination, concentration and playfulness. A few years ago Social Circus Tasmania had a presence at a big event called 'A Day on the Beach', of which I've been patron for about a decade, although the event is now changing its name to 'A Day at the Park'. While the founders, Christian and Staja, had extensive skills and experience in circus performance, what they gained through NEIS was how to turn that experience and their passion for something they enjoyed doing into a viable business. This is the value of the business management training and business planning assistance that NEIS offers.

Some of the many other success stories include: a children's clothing business which, during COVID, pivoted to producing face masks when Melbourne went into lockdown; a former Australian Defence Force member who, through his successful career, had developed a passion for health, fitness and pushing people to their limit, and turned it into a personal training business; someone who had a unique knowledge of locations not being visited by tour operators attracted a market with her new tour company; and a theatre prop maker and scenic artist who applied her skills to a new business manufacturing wooden furniture and toys, including bespoke rocking horses. It's mind-boggling to think of the wealth of amazing stories that the thousands of people who have benefited from NEIS would have to tell.

The bill before the Senate now, the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022 is necessary because of some recent changes to NEIS. These changes came into effect on 1 July 2022. NEIS has been replaced with the Self-Employment Assistance program throughout Australia, with the exception of Norfolk Island, where NEIS will continue to be offered. This bill updates the Social Security Act 1991, the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 and the Family Law Regulations 1984 to make it clear that the social security law, veterans' entitlement law and family law operate in the same way for the new program as they did for NEIS. It also includes some minor technical amendments and clarifications to the social security law following the recent Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Act 2022.

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (18:03): As servants to the people of Queensland and Australia, One Nation stands for veterans and small business. But I want to address the root cause. This is a bandaid; it's very necessary but it's not addressing the root cause.

Senator Gallagher has stated that self-employment is 'an excellent alternative to traditional employment for Australians who want to use their existing skills and experience in a work environment of their choice'. We agree. Yet Labor is really anti-self-employment and soon intends to stifle small business and self-employed Australians under gig laws that could strangle the sector. They devastated California, for example, and sent people interstate. There's nowhere to go beyond the shores of this country if Labor gets its way.

I remember what Labor, the union bosses and some dishonest, disrespectful, antihuman multinational corporations did in the Hunter Valley. Labor joined them in enabling the exploitation and abuse of casual coalminers in the Hunter, and when I tried to stand up for them the Labor member of parliament for the Hunter at the time, Mr Joel Fitzgibbon, misrepresented me and the problems, apparently to hide the problems. That perpetuated the abuse of workers and the hurting of workers. Labor does not care about workers. Modern Labor cares about getting Green votes in the inner cities.

Everyday Australians are now suffering from 2½ years of COVID mismanagement, and it is ongoing. Labor wasn't the federal government during that time, but Labor was in power in the states, and the states and the federal government worked together, hand in hand, to destroy the productive capacity of this country, not only over the last 2½ years but over the last 78 years, since 1944. Labor wants to phase out the coal industry and jobs in the coal sector and related sectors. The Labor-Greens coalition in the Senate is hell-bent on doing that. Labor is in favour of eroding our rights and freedoms and increasing rents, house prices, energy prices and debt. There is a lack of much-needed tax reform and economic reform. That needs to be comprehensive reform. As I said a minute ago, Australia's productive capacity is being destroyed and has been in the process of being destroyed for 78 years.

In uncertain times, such as I've just described, much, much more needs to be done to support small business and the self-employed. Yes, we agree that starting a new enterprise or a self-employment assistance program is a help to some people, particularly hardworking vets who have earned the support, but they're up against it in the form of the taxation system, energy prices, lack of infrastructure and capricious overregulation. All workers—not just vets—are suffering because the productive capacity of our beautiful country has been destroyed.

The economic environment has been destroyed. The government's job is not to employ people. The government's job is to create an environment that favours employment through people taking risks with investment and hiring workers. That's where real jobs—sustainable jobs—come from. That's known throughout civilisation. We must give Australians the opportunity to be free, to be their own boss and to own a business that offers them secure work and financial independence. They should be free to create, initiate and innovate, and that requires cheap energy. Labor, with its mates in the Labor-Greens coalition, are raising energy prices. We went from having the cheapest electricity sources in the world to having amongst the highest electricity prices in the world. It's not due to resources and it's not due to Mother Nature; it's due entirely to mismanagement under the Liberal-Labor-Nats-Greens circus.

Not only do we need affordable, reliable and secure energy but also we need fair reward. That means we need a comprehensive reform of the tax system. Why are we letting multinational corporations off the hook, as we did with Robert Menzies's bill in 1953 and Prime Minister Hawke's legislation on the petroleum rent resource tax in the 1980s? Both sides have done it. Jim Killaly, the former deputy assistant commissioner of taxation in this country, who was responsible for large companies and international matters, said—and he said it in 1996 and in 2010—that 90 per cent of Australia's large companies are foreign owned and, since 1953, have paid little or no company tax.

Meanwhile individuals in this country are paying exorbitant tax rates. The median income in this country now is $51,000. After tax, that's around $45,000 or $46,000. The additional cost of Labor, Greens, Nationals and Liberals policy on energy—the additional cost of solar and wind subsidies and climate subsidies—is a staggering $1,300 per year. How the hell can someone earning $45,000 or $46,000 a year afford that additional cost? That's not the cost of electricity; that's an additional cost for solar and wind subsidies. We're sending the country broke because of the people in this building lacking the courage to do what is right and tell the truth. Veterans need more support, and this bill is just not enough. When will Labor and the Greens do something about housing, rent, veteran suicide, agriculture, energy and inflation? Who will protect the economy and jobs? Who will create the economic environment that will enable people to invest, innovate, create and to be entrepreneurs? Who will do that? When will Labor and the Greens do something about this very issue? Who will restore the productive capacity of our country, the economic environment of our country? Labor and the Greens don't understand.

In fact, while I enjoyed listening to Senator Allman-Payne yesterday, sharing her emotions freely, she was crying at the plight of the poor and then congratulating Senator Larissa Waters for her 12 years in the Senate when Senator Waters is directly responsible for raising the cost of electricity which is destroying the poor and raising prices through the roof in terms of inflation. That's what's going on: it's complete ignorance. Contrary to that, we understand. One Nation understand the root causes and the solutions to the root causes of these problems. We are one people, we are one community and we are one magnificent country with enormous potential. We just need to become, again, one nation.

Senator McCARTHY (Northern Territory—Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health) (18:11): The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022 seeks to amend social security law and related elements of veterans and family laws. This is to make clear the law operates in the same way when participants access self-employment services through the Self-Employment Assistance program as through the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. They're subtle but important changes to ensure services are streamlined and support is available to people engaged in self-employment and small businesses across Australia.

We can all appreciate the importance of small business to the Australian economy, communities and families. There are around 2.4 million small businesses actively trading and employing around 4.7 million people. Self-employed people take many familiar forms. They could be a writer, a photographer, a hairdresser, an accountant, a landscaper or a lawyer. Self-employment is an alternative to traditional employment and offers Australians the opportunity to use their skills to succeed. It gives Australians freedom to use their existing experience and skills to work in an environment of their choice. Our government recognises the importance of this choice and the support needed to foster that choice.

Self-employment also helps Australians who struggle to apply their skills in other labour market settings, to use those skills and succeed in their area of employment. That's why people, especially those with a disability, who still face significant challenges in having their skills recognised by employers, are more likely to be self-employed than the general population in Australia. Whether it's an Indigenous artist based in the Northern Territory or a cafe owner in Sydney, self-employment provides an invaluable opportunity for Australians to pursue their passion and find meaningful work that is valuable to themselves, their family, their community and the Australian economy. It's really why this bill is so important. It will give self-employed Australians confidence that there is clear and consistent treatment of income tested support within the relevant legislative frameworks. The significance of this support cannot be understated.

The Labor Party has a strong history of supporting new small businesses and self-employment. It was the Hawke government that launched the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, or NEIS program, in 1985 to help unemployed Australians create their own employment opportunities. Since then, NEIS has successfully helped around 200,000 Australians to start and run their small businesses. The program provided small business training and 12 months of personalised mentoring to support Australians to start viable small businesses. The Self-Employment Assistance program today builds on the success of NEIS and its legacy through additional and more tailored services that allow participants to choose what support they need for their small business.

The amendments will help make sure the same support made available under NEIS will continue to support people in the Self-Employment Assistance program today. Both Self-Employment Assistance and the Entrepreneurship Facilitators program give participants the tools that they needed to create their own business and earn an income to achieve financial independence, with fewer traditional jobs available and an increased number of job-ready seekers on the employment services caseload. Self-Employment Assistance offers flexible services to help people who are interested in becoming self-employed and people who are existing microbusiness owners, and it's delivered by small business specialist providers in 51 employment regions across Australia. The involvement of self-employment support and associated reforms has become farther-ranging and more inclusive since the beginnings of the NEIS almost 40 years ago.

In 2012, concurrency for disability employment services participants was introduced to the program. This allowed disability employment services participants to continue to have access to specialised disability support while also accessing specialised small-business support from the NEIS provider. Australia's disability strategy 2021-2031 recognises the crucial role of self-employment and business ownership and increasing employment a disability. Self-employment creates opportunity amidst the labour market disadvantages faced by people living with a disability. In fact, individuals with a disability already had a higher relative rate of business ownership than those without a disability. Australia's disability entrepreneurial ecosystem: experiences of people with disability with microenterprises, self-employment and entrepreneurship, a joint report from the University of Technology Sydney, National Disability Services, Settlement Services International, and Break-Thru People Solutions, published in 2020, found that people with a disability were 40 per cent more likely to be self-employed.

In 2016, the high-disadvantage trial was also introduced to provide additional support for more Australians engaged in self-employment. This trial targeted a range of disadvantaged cohorts such as migrants, people with a disability and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In 2018, the high-disadvantage trial was amended to focus on assisting migrants and refugees, and NEIS providers could access these places on and an as-needed basis.

In 2019, Entrepreneurship Facilitators expanded to 23 regions across Australia, broadening eligibility to anyone wishing to start their own business. A year later, eligibility to access NEIS was also amended to support part-time businesses to assist those with caring responsibilities or working part time with accessing support to create their own income through self-employment. It also supported existing microbusinesses impacted by COVID-19 with accessing support to pivot their businesses to remain viable. In July last year, veterans transitioning out of the Australian Defence Forces, and their adult family members, were able to access workshops and commence NEIS training while still in the ADF to explore self-employment while still employed. Strong demand for support emerged during COVID-19, when there were fewer traditional jobs available and many jobseekers sought to create their own job by starting a small business. NEIS, or new business assistance with NEIS, ended on 30 June this year, replaced with the new Self-Employment Assistance program, which supports more tailored servicing and participants choosing which services they need to access to support their self-employment journey.

I would also like to share some of the personal stories of this program. Participants value the space, the self-employment program creates to help them develop their ideas and learning critical foundational skills like bookkeeping and connecting with mentors. The program also creates a safety net for those just starting out, allowing them to start earning income from their new business while NEIS allowances are paid. Participants can also receive income from outside the business, such as from investments or other work, while receiving assistance. Successful NEIS alumni include singers, comedians, web designers, music venue developers and artisan ice-cream makers.

I want to bring to the Senate a fantastic story from the Northern Territory. It's one of almost 200,000 coming from the NEIS, which really humanises the importance of good policy in small-business support. In 2012, Holly Copping opened the doors to the Territory Laser Clinic. Established while participating in the NEIS program, the Territory Laser Clinic offers a range of treatments, including those related to acne, acne scarring and tattoo removal. Having experienced acne from the age of 12, Holly wanted to ensure no-one struggled with the same issues that she did, and she became the Northern Territory's first qualified dermal therapist. Holly enjoyed using her knowledge and expertise to change people's lives.

While participating in NEIS, Holly was nominated for two regional awards and was awarded the National NEIS Association's award Best New Business in 2013. She became the first Northern Territory business to win the award. Holly was presented with the award by the Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, which was a very special moment for her. I want to put into Hansard Holly's quotes, when she reflected on how far that program had taken her and where it actually took her. Holly said:

I can honestly say that the NEIS programme is 100 per cent worth the effort. The advice and coaching I received was invaluable. Monthly mentoring and quarterly visits ensured that I monitored the growth of my business, and the financial support was amazing to say the least. I can highly recommend this programme to anyone who has a new business idea.

That was Holly Copping when she received her award.

It's, really, individual stories like this that show us the real impact that business support has on people's lives, particularly when it comes to self-employment and fostering small business. Small businesses are the backbone of many communities across Australia. Small business and those with fewer than 20 employees comprise around 98 per cent of all business operating in the Australian economy. And, as I said previously, they employ around 4.7 million people or around 41 per cent of the business workforce. Small business is diverse, operating in every industry and region, attracting a range of different owners and employees, and can be highly agile and adept at responding to areas of the economy that are experiencing growth. Small business is continuously entering and exiting the Australian economy.

As at 30 June 2021 there were around 2.4 million actively trading businesses in the Australian economy. Within this landscape, around 360,000 new businesses entered the economy and around 270,000 businesses exited. Small businesses are particularly significant employers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing, rental, hiring and real estate, construction and professional, scientific and technical services sectors. So while the industry mix changes over time, the most common sectors for new NEIS businesses are hospitality, retail trade, transport and logistics, and professional services.

Self-employment programs, such as Self-Employment Assistance and the Entrepreneurship Facilitator, have a role in helping people create new small businesses and ensuring people who start in these businesses have the ability and knowledge to survive, thrive and grow. There was a significant increase in self-employment seen through COVID due to the lack of traditional jobs available, which is perhaps another demonstration of the importance of flexibility in self-employment and associated programs.

There will be $843 million available over five years, from 2021-22, for self-employment services, and this is an absolutely critical investment. Self-Employment Assistance overall is a more flexible and tailored program and allows participants to access the service components in any order, based on their individual needs. Self-Employment Assistance providers have a greater role in promoting self-employment opportunities as well as promoting the program in their local regions to the broader community as well as key stakeholders.

These important changes streamline the delivery of services, increase referrals to self-employment and reduce duplication. The bill, as part of schedule 1, will also ensure that, if Self-Employment Assistance is given a different name, the family, social security and veterans' entitlement laws will continue to operate in the same way. Whether you are a veteran, a young person, a refugee or a single mother with caring duties, it's important that we as parliamentarians extend our support to self-employed Australians who need it.

Senator MARIELLE SMITH (South Australia) (18:25): I rise today also to make a contribution on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill. This bill provides clarity around two self-employment programs that support Australians to start and run small businesses. The first is the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, or NEIS, that was established in 1985 under a Labor government, and which has successfully assisted 198,000 people in starting their own business since its commencement. An incredible achievement! The second is the Self-Employment Assistance program which largely expanded upon and replaced the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme when it commenced on 1 July 2022. This bill clarifies that the law operates in the same way for Self-Employment Assistance as it now operates for the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.

The bill makes amendments not only to social security law but also to related elements of two additional important laws: veterans and family law. The bill will update these laws to make clear that Self-Employment Assistance payments will be treated in the same way by the law as the previous New Enterprise Incentive Scheme payments. The bill adds an additional definition of 'self-employment program' and allows for a change in the name of Self-Employment Assistance by the employment secretary to ensure the same laws will apply if the assistance is renamed.

Lastly, the bill makes a small number of minor technical amendments. This bill is an administrative amendment to provide clarification to participants using two incredibly valuable self-employment programs These two programs are designed with the intention to provide assistance to Australians wanting to create new small businesses. As I mentioned previously, the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme was launched under the Hawke government and has helped nearly 200,000 people since it commenced 37 years ago. It's a program designed to help people move off income support by starting their own business and generating their own income—people who are otherwise, perhaps, relying on social security or veterans entitlements payments and, for the past 2½ years, the COVID payment. This is a program with proven effectiveness. It was found that, three months after exiting the program, 82 per cent of participants remained in employment and 68 per cent were still running their business. That is an excellent outcome for the individuals whose real lives this program has impacted and the real businesses and opportunities that they've created. On top of that, more than half of the participants who accessed the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme over the past seven years were women. It's a fantastic opportunity for women to earn their own incomes, support their families and contribute economically to their communities.

The Self-Employment Assistance program commenced on 1 July 2022, and we know it builds upon the existing services of the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. The Self-Employment Assistance program provides further flexibility and more tailored services to allow participants to access the support that best suits their circumstance. This includes accredited training to prepare a comprehensive business plan, advice sessions and business health checks. These services will help people to generate and validate business ideas and assist them in making informed decisions about the efficacy of their business plan. The Self-Employment Assistance program will continue the self-employment allowance that was established under the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. This allowance from the government helps supplement the income a participant earns from their business to provide them with the ability to reinvest their business earnings back into that business.

Deputy President, in our home state of South Australia, programs that aid the employment sector are especially welcomed, and I know you would welcome them too. Although we have seen an improvement in the unemployment rate nationally, we know that, in my state of South Australia, the unemployment rate tends to be behind the national average. Indeed, the ABS June report showed that South Australia's unemployment rate was 4.3 per cent, compared to 3.5 per cent nationally. South Australia is now tied with Tasmania as having the highest unemployment rate in Australia. Of course, these aren't just statistics; they're real people. When we lag behind the national employment rate, it has a real impact on people in my state.

I said in my first speech to this place that securing jobs in my state requires governments to stand up and fight for them. We can never be complacent about the need to create effective policies that address the ongoing risks to job security in South Australia. To deliver good jobs in South Australia, we need to actively forge a good economy, to forge opportunities for work and business, opportunities that grow jobs. In South Australia, we know that a strong and resilient economy does not build itself. It has always required a degree of support and assistance.

I'm really proud of the work that successive Labor governments have done to grow business, to grow opportunity and to grow jobs in our state. That work, now, under a state and federal Labor government, will only continue. These two governments are genuinely concerned with jobs, fighting for those jobs and building the conditions to make sure more jobs come to South Australia. They're two governments that understand that that must happen in partnership. We need businesses and workers to succeed side by side to create these fantastic opportunities for small business, to give people the opportunity to enter that sector, to create a business, to potentially become an employer, with all the opportunities that participation in work brings, and further grow and strengthen our economy.

The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme and Self-Employment Assistance program provide South Australians with an alternative to traditional work, and we know it's having a big impact on many South Australians who have been able to access it. I want to share a story about a South Australian named Chloe Gardner. Ms Gardner is an award-winning filmmaker who has also worked as an actress and in management across many companies. Ms Gardner did not have much business knowledge, but, through the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, she was able to bring her ideas together and gain the knowledge required to start a business, including knowledge in financial management, legal matters and marketing.

This assistance and knowledge gained from her time in the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme facilitated the creation of her award-winning business, Kids Camera Action! In 2018, this business was selected as a world-class organisation to present workshops in the United Arab Emirates. This business has enabled thousands of children across South Australia to learn new skills and refine existing strengths in the art of filmmaking. What an incredible contribution to these kids in South Australia and the community as a whole. These stories are inspiring and empowering. I wish we could hear more of them, especially given how tough South Australians, particularly young South Australians, have been doing it these past years.

As we know, young South Australians have suffered tremendously over the last decade. Of course, we've had the COVID pandemic, a pandemic we're still living in and dealing with. But through its most difficult phases, those young people were left behind in my state by a government that didn't give their voices the prominence they deserved. Let's be clear: young people bear the brunt of government failures more than any other group in society. They've suffered through two years of insecure employment, cuts to education, and government policy that pushed them to raid their small balances of super. Will they ever recover from that raid? This was a government that pushed the consequences of its choices and actions onto the younger generation, a generation that was denied a proper and loud voice at the heart of government. This is something that the Labor government will address.

I note the work of our Minister for Youth and what she intends to bring forward to make sure that young people's voices are well and truly heard within the Albanese Labor government. When we think about the trillion dollars of debt inherited by those opposite, the burden of that falls disproportionately on young people. We know that. It's those young people who will feel the after-effects of government failure for years to come.

I am proud to stand in this chamber today and speak on this bill and the additional positive policies and plans of the Albanese government that will help young Australians. That's really what it's all about—the opportunities to create jobs and opportunities for young people. That is what Labor is all about. We've got policies that will bring back secure employment and make our education system more accessible. I stood in this chamber when those opposite made significant cuts to the university sector which made it harder and more expensive for many young Australians to go to university. It was unacceptable. We want our education system to be more accessible and not less. We want job security front and centre. We'll make it an object of the Fair Work Act and ensure the Fair Work Commission considers it. We've got a range of policies to support casual workers—workers employed directly through companies and also through labour hire measures—that would bring security to workers in Australia and bring back confidence in the workforce.

Unfortunately, the previous government's TAFE and education cuts meant a loss in skills and training across Australia—another thing that we are working to fix. The Self-Employment Assistance program described in this bill provides the training required for those wanting to start a small business, but this is not everything, of course. We need to get that investment into TAFE and into training. That's why we're providing 465,000 fee-free TAFE places to train Australians in jobs currently experiencing skills shortages—jobs like engineering, nursing, tech and teaching. We'll deliver up to 20,000 extra uni places over 2022 and 2023, making it easier to get a spot at uni. For young people who want to go to uni and who want that opportunity, ultimately, that's their ticket to a chance at a job in their chosen field. All of these measures combine with the programs explained in this bill and all the things in our agenda to make our economy fairer, to create jobs and to grow opportunities for young people. These are things to celebrate. These are part of our agenda as the Albanese Labor government.

I think there is certainly plenty of work we need to do to make sure that young South Australians—indeed, all South Australians who want to enter the workforce—have an opportunity to access good jobs and create their own businesses. For young people, we need to support their choices, whether it's to go to university or to do a trade or an apprenticeship. Whatever it may be that enables our young people to fulfil their dreams and aspirations and hopes, that's something worthy of our government's support.

For all South Australians who want to work, who appreciate and understand the dignity of work and what those opportunities mean for families, I know so many South Australians value that and value that it is something in our state which is not ever to be taken for granted. Our opportunities, our employment prospects and jobs in my state of South Australia, are things that governments actually have to fight for, so I acknowledge the work of our state Labor government and our federal Labor government. These are really, really important things. I thank the Senate for the opportunity to talk on the bill, and I commend it to the Senate.

Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (18:37): I rise with some degree of pleasure to speak on this bill, another initiative coming from the newly elected Albanese government, who are firmly focused on enabling Australians, bringing jobs into being and making sure that people who need support in establishing their own work through their small businesses get the assistance that they need. This bill, the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022, makes small but nonetheless crucial amendments to replace the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme with the Self-Employment Assistance program throughout most of Australia.

I think we can underplay the importance of how things are named. I know in the previous parliament I was very distressed that some of the bills, whose titles were determined by the then government, didn't actually say what they did. Australians understand what it is to become self-employed, with all the joys, the opportunities and the excitement but also with all the debt, the worries and the concerns. They know what self-employment is, and that is what this bill is about.

The bill clarifies that social security law, veterans entitlement law and family law operate in the same way for a new program, Self-Employment Assistance, as for the NEIS, and it also makes a few other minor amendments and clarifications to the current social security law.

Self-employment assistance is vital to help those who want to launch their own business and those who have launched their own business and, through that experience, have come to a point of figuring out that they actually need to have a few of their particular questions answered. It can be one thing to be inspired to create your own business, find out a little bit on the internet and get started, but there will be headwinds, and this program recognises that and is here to support people so that they can get the assistance that they need.

Now, clearly, it has had some impact of a positive kind on the futures of those who have started businesses in recent years. The NEIS figures show that it has helped nearly 200,000 Australians be their own bosses and put into reality their dreams of independence.

I do want to say that there has been, for far too long, an argument and an unquestioned—in some parts of the Australian community—sense that small business is represented by one party in this place. Well, that is absolutely not the case. I know, from talking to colleagues around the chamber and certainly amongst my colleagues in the Labor Party, that very many of us either grew up in family businesses, small businesses, or ran them ourselves. I see Senator McAllister here, and I know that she grew up in the Northern Rivers part of New South Wales, and, seriously, without small businesses that were functioning and operating there, people would be profoundly disadvantaged in terms of employment. Great employers create jobs.

The reality is: not everybody wants to be an employer; not everybody wants to set up their own business; not everybody has the health, the wellbeing, the disposition, the opportunity or the capital to undertake the risk of small business. Not everybody is willing to sell their house—as my father did. I cannot believe he convinced my mother to do this. Having struggled to get a house, five years after they arrived they got one, at Blacktown: 17 Curran Street; a fibro double-fronter; no furniture. They'd got a house five years after they arrived in the country. And my father convinced my mother to sell that house so that he could buy a machine, a front-end loader/backhoe, so that he could commence his own business. Not everybody has that dream and that vision, and not everybody is willing to take on the joys and the risks. But, coming from a small business family, I know how important it can be to get the right advice and the right assistance, when the time is right for that for you and for your business.

Now, Self-Employment Assistance is a fantastic program that helps jobseekers to create their own business and earn an income, to achieve financial independence. Sometimes this is born of necessity, if you can't find a job in the area that you live in and you start to figure out: 'Actually, there are a whole lot of lawns that haven't been mowed in my street. Perhaps I might go down to Mrs Jones. I'll begin to do that.' Well, there are a whole lot of questions that follow on from that: 'What are the health and safety obligations? What do I need to do to establish this? Have I got enough money for the plant and equipment? What are the protections?' People have questions.

Now, this program provides flexible services to people who are interested in becoming self-employed and people who are in existing microbusinesses. The program itself is delivered by business owners and by small business specialists. It is provided through 51 employment regions across Australia. So, if you or someone you know and love is at the point where you or they need some assistance with a small business or microbusiness, or if you have plans to start your own business, know that, right across the country, there is this program there, ready to assist you. And when businesses succeed and they grow, they generate jobs. And that is a fine thing to do—to create work for one of our fellow Australians.

The services that are provided across these 51 employment regions in Australia include 'exploring self-employment' workshops and involve five sessions that are delivered over a period of one to three weeks, providing participants with all the information that they may need about self-employment and what they need to really know to start and run a business. I'm sure that some who have already started will go in there and think, 'Oh, my goodness, I could have made my life so much easier if I'd got a bit of information!' And there would be others who would be going in with more detailed questions because they have started and they want to know how they can improve what they're doing.

Small business training will provide participants with the foundation skills they need to start and run a small business, and they can access accredited training and choose to do a shorter skill set or a longer cert III or IV in entrepreneurship and new business. Having been a teacher in my life prior to coming to parliament, it's amazing when young people who really were not interested in what school had to offer find their passion; they're interested in finding out what they need to do to bring their passion to life, to monetise it and be able to live their best life, employing themselves in doing what they want to do.

Returning to study for people who might not have enjoyed school is something that's happening through this program, and it's vital that we have access to training programs. That's why Labor's support of fee-free TAFE places is critical to the growth of jobs in this country—to liberate the capacity and talent of the nation by giving people the opportunity to take what they know and to build on it through further training without incurring an enormous debt, which can be the thing that stops them from following their dreams.

The other supports that are offered through this program include business plan development. That supports people to prepare a viable business plan to help their business succeed, helping them identify strategies for success and to forecast the cash flow for their business. Business advice sessions are also available, offering targeted advice relating to a participant's business idea or to existing microbusiness owners, with sessions offered over the course of an hour. Sometimes it is just a chat with a mentor that can really unplug some particularly sticky situations for small businesses. There are also business health checks for existing microbusiness owners, where a participant works with a provider to find ways to improve the viability of the business. They can be delivered in one-on-one sessions over three hours. Small business coaching is also available, and that offers 12 months of personalised mentoring and support to help participants start, develop and run a successful business.

The participants who are accepted into the small business coaching element of the program can also receive financial support to purchase up to $300 worth of business costs, such as business insurance. As I said earlier, I am still amazed that my father was able to convince my mother to risk capital from our house to commence a business, and go out and start digging trenches and building roads. As somebody who grew up in that environment, practising answering the phone for the business from age seven, it's a knowledge and skill set that many of us learned at the kitchen table and learned through our immersion in family businesses. But for many Australians that's a commencement of learning that needs to be further developed, outside the kitchen table and with other people who have mentoring capacities and the visual and technical skills to help people understand the full potential of their business. The programs that I'm describing here really provide a level playing field and provide some security and support to make sure that these businesses are set up in a way that is compliant with Australian law and gives the best chance of success. I know that any aspiring small business owner needs the right skills and tools to realise their dreams, and this program is designed to that end.

Small businesses everywhere are the engine room of growth for the Australian economy, but they are particularly vital in the regions of Australia like the Central Coast—my home. It's only a couple of hours north of Sydney but a different world entirely, where public transport doesn't exist and small businesses are the driver of our local economy. I'm also the duty senator for pretty well most of the western part of New South Wales, for the seats of Calare, Parkes, Farrer, Hume and Riverina, and also for the seat of Lyne. All of these are seats where incredible business is done and incredible wealth for the country is generated. They are replete with people commencing their own journey in small business. We need to help nurture more and more of these small businesses to keep growing our economy. They are often sites where innovation occurs.

Small businesses form 98 per cent of all existing businesses and employ 41 per cent of Australia's workforce. That's an astounding number of Australians who are engaged in small business, either as the director of the business or as an employee. So 4.7 million of us are involved in small business.

For many people small business is their pathway to the middle class, to enable them to fulfil their aspirations. It's not surprising that in the story I tell about my parents—I'll add a little bit to it! They were immigrants, first arriving here at the end of 1960, putting their shoulder to the wheel in an economy that was growing at the time, and they really worked hard to get themselves a far better life than they had left behind in England, where they met, and in Ireland, where they had been born. It's so important that we provide all Australians with free education programs that allow them to access the opportunities they need to fully contribute to Australia and our success as a nation.

The results of the program are there for all to see. There have been 198,000 people helped by the program, including 47,259 who have started a new business since July 2015. I'm pleased to say 25,249 of those entrepreneurs were women—that's 53 per cent—and 18,791 were mature-age people aged 45 years and over. The program itself also plays a vital role in helping Australians with a disability become self-employed. Disabled Australians actually have a higher rate of relative business ownership than non-disabled Australians, at 11.6 per cent compared to only 8.2 per cent of the general public. The Australian disability strategy 2021-23 actively seeks to increase that already substantial number.

If there was more time I would tell you about two fantastic participants in this program—MAZ3D epoxy floor coatings in Ryde, and Just Enough Beach hand-poured candles in the New South Wales North Coast in Yamba. They're just a couple of the thousands and thousands of companies that have benefited from taking their business and themselves through this program, through mentoring, to improve the capacity of their business. And with success comes more and more jobs. These are stories we should celebrating, and more and more the revamp of this program will provide those opportunities.

Our economy will get back on track through the hard work and initiative of people like those business owners who have already benefited. Labor certainly believes in giving entrepreneurial Australians the toolkit they need to start their own business, be their own boss and grow the jobs for future Australians.

Senator WALSH (Victoria) (18:53): I too rise to speak on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022. This bill seeks to update the Social Security Act 1991, the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 and the Family Law Regulations 1984 to provide clarity and consistency in our laws regarding the new Self-Employment Assistance program.

The Self-Employment Assistance program, which started on 1 July this year, replaced the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. Labor is very proud of its history with this program. Labor recognises that small businesses are a vital part of our economy. We know that there are over 2.4 million small businesses actively trading in Australia today and that they employ almost five million workers. The development of small business is also an alternative to traditional employment for so many Australians that can provide secure work and financial independence if people are supported with programs like this, while also supporting Australians to use their skills that might not otherwise be recognised by traditional employers to still succeed. That is part of the role of small business as an alternative to traditional employment for many people.

Successive Labor governments have supported and encouraged the development of small business in Australia, and the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme is just one example of that. The scheme was introduced by the Hawke Labor government way back in 1985 to help unemployed Australians create their own employment opportunities, and it's been running for 37 years. Over the course of those 37 years this scheme has helped almost 200,000 Australians to start and run their very own small business.

Before this scheme's creation, before it came into effect, when someone started a small business they would cease to be eligible to access income support, and that acted as a barrier to those who otherwise would have sought to take on a small business venture and create their own employment opportunities. So, to incentivise those who were unemployed to create a small business, the Hawke government launched a trial of the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, offering participants an allowance in line with their income support entitlement; providing small-business training, with courses designed for participants to learn foundational business skills and develop business plans; and, as well, providing 12 months of personalised mentoring to support those participants to create their very own viable business. Later, in 2012, this scheme was expanded to include participants of disability employment services. It supported Australians with a disability to develop a small business, giving them the flexibility and financial independence of self-employment.

The educational and mentoring support included in this scheme has also been extended to those not on income support to encourage more Australians to start viable small businesses. In the last few years eligibility for the scheme has also been expanded to veterans transitioning out of the Australian Defence Force, giving them access to training while they are still employed. It has also been expanded to support part-time businesses, assisting those with part-time employment or, for example, caring responsibilities. These really important expansions have increased participation in the New Enterprise Investment Scheme. In fact, it's women who have made up 53 per cent of participants in the scheme over the past several years, and people with a disability make up almost 20 per cent. Great outcomes have been delivered for these participants, and we can see that in some of statistics on the success of the program. Eighty-two per cent of participants remain in employment three months after they exit the program, and almost 70 per cent are still running their businesses.

Strong demand for this program emerged during COVID, when fewer traditional jobs were available and many jobseekers were looking to self-employment through starting a small business as the way forward during very difficult times. The scheme also helped many businesses pivot to deliver services in new and innovative ways to remain viable, really demonstrating the key role that government can play in helping businesses adapt in uncertain times.

On 1 July this year the scheme I've been describing was replaced with the new Self-Employment Assistance program. This new program builds on the success of that Hawke government legacy dating back 37 years to 1985. With a budget of over $840 million over five years, the program will continue to support Australians to start and run small businesses, which will create jobs, grow our economy and improve labour market outcomes.

The new program allows eligible people interested in self-employment to receive free help to generate and validate business ideas, allowing them to make really well informed decisions about whether self-employment is actually a good fit for them and, potentially, for their families. The expanded program will provide additional services that will be tailored to participants, allowing them to choose the supports that they need—the supports that really suit them in the small business that they would like to set up. These are supports such as free accredited training, business plan development, business advice sessions and business health checks. And business mentoring and advice will be available for eligible business owners who have only recently started trading or who need assistance to adapt their business and their business model in our changing economic environment.

The Self-Employment Assistance program retains the successful components of the New Enterprise Investment Scheme while introducing changes to small business and entrepreneurship services to make them more flexible, and improving access for jobseekers and microbusiness owners. This bill will ensure that the same supports available under the former scheme will continue to support participants of the Self-Employment Assistance program, making clear in our laws that the previous provisions for payments apply equally to the payments under the Self-Employment Assistance program. That's very important to providing clarity for participants while they support themselves to establish their new businesses.

We recognise that this program has supported Australians to gain flexibility and financial security through self-employment, and we recognise that self-employment is a viable pathway for Australians to move off income support, earn their own income and contribute to their communities. But of course we also know that starting a small business takes a lot of time and requires a lot of support, particularly financial support. Labor is committed to supporting and fostering self-employment opportunities for small businesses for people who want to start their own small business. We understand how critical small businesses are to our economy. I must say that it was a pleasure to follow Senator O'Neill in my comments; she has been such a champion for small business in this country. I echo the comments that Senator O'Neill made, and the passion that she demonstrated for our government to show support to people to really pursue their dreams in setting up their own small business.

Like Senator O'Neill, Labor is committed across the board to supporting and fostering people's small business opportunities. We know that small business is critical—across the economy but also in particular to local communities, and, as Senator O'Neill said as well, particularly in regional communities. They make up 98 per cent of all businesses in our country and employ around 41 per cent of the business workforce. Small businesses are in every part of the country, in every industry and in every region around Australia. So often small business is the real backbone of local communities.

The New Enterprise Investment Scheme is a legacy of the Hawke Labor government, and it is really such a strong sign of the work that this parliament can do when we work together in a bipartisan fashion to support good programs. We have a legacy here with this program; it has lasted for over 37 years and through 14 parliaments. That's the sort of change that Labor governments can deliver for Australians and that Labor governments will continue to deliver for Australians: lasting change, change that helps people not only to keep their heads above water and to survive but actually to thrive—to thrive in their businesses and in their communities.

This is a program that we're so proud of because it supports people to upskill and re-skill, and it gives them the tools to be successful. It supports Australians to find secure work, whether that's in a traditional employment setting or whether it's through self-employment. Our government will maximise small-business participation in Commonwealth procurement, and use our purchasing power to also support small business through those procurement measures. We believe in delivering better value for money, growing our local economy and providing greater opportunities for business to create more, better and more secure Australian jobs.

Our government will help address skills shortages that are affecting small businesses, through fee-free TAFE and our cheaper childcare policy. We're committed to removing barriers to getting people into the workforce, as well as barriers to those who want to return to work. The Albanese government is delivering a better deal for small business by listening to people's needs, reviving genuine collaboration between small business and government, and drawing on Labor's history of working with unions, workers and industry to deliver better outcomes for all.

Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania—Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) (19:05): I rise to speak on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022. Small businesses in Australia have taken a battering over the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and none more so than those who are just starting out. That's why it's more important than ever for government to support and encourage the development of new small businesses and to help viable businesses adapt to change.

Small businesses are a vital part of the Australian economy, with 2.4 million small businesses actively trading and employing around 4.7 million people. In Tasmania, the state I represent, 97 per cent of businesses are small businesses, and there are just under 40,000 small businesses employing around 100,000 people. That figure really hits home when you consider that there are around 263,700 employed people in the whole state—so nearly 40 per cent of working Tasmanians are employed in a small business. Almost a quarter of all Tasmania small-business operators are born overseas.

Labor knows that giving Australians the opportunity to be their own boss and own a business that offers them secure work and financial independence is absolutely vital. For many Australians, self-employment is a great alternative to traditional employment, allowing them to use their existing skills and experience in a work environment they get to shape and mould. It also assists Australians who struggle to apply their skills in other labour market settings to use those skills and succeed. It is particularly important as an option for people with disability, who still face significant challenges in having their skills recognised by employers. It is interesting to note that people living with disability are more than 40 per cent more likely to be self-employed than the rest of the general population.

But it takes time and other support to establish a small business, including financial support. The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme has operated for over 35 years across Australia, and it is designed to assist people receiving Job Network or Centrelink services to develop and launch their own small business. It was established by the Hawke Labor government and was launched as a pilot program on the first day of July in 1985. This scheme was very much designed to help unemployed Australians create their own employment opportunities and to provide a safety net for those just starting out, allowing them to start earning income from their new business while the scheme allowance was paid. The scheme was established as an ongoing program in 1987 after an evaluation report identified it was having a positive effect on sustained self-employment. In 1988, the program was modified to allow private-sector and non-government organisations to deliver NEIS services. Run through the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, it provides training in how to develop, plan and execute a business, and then allows people to operate their business with supported funding for up to 12 months. The program provides small-business training and 12 months of personalised mentoring support from contracted business owners or identified mentors. During the 12 months, NEIS participants offered an allowance equal to basic JobSeeker rates for up to nine months and rent assistance for up to six months. Since 1985, the NEIS has successfully helped over 198,000 business to start and run a small business.

Small businesses are particularly significant employers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing, rental hiring and real estate, construction, professional, scientific and technical services sectors. While the industries change over time, the most common sectors for new NEIS businesses are hospitality, retail trade, transport and logistics, and professional services. In 2012, concurrency for Disability Employment Service participants were introduced, allowing DES participants to have specialised disability supports while also accessing specialised small-business support from a NEIS provider.

In 2016, as part of the encouraging entrepreneurship and self-employment initiative, a range of new elements were announced to enhance the program. These included 'exploring being my own boss' workshops, aimed at encouraging people to explore whether self-employment would be right for them, with 1,000 workshop places available each year plus an additional 2,300 places made available each year to provide more opportunities. Eligibility to access the program was also broadened to allow people not on income support to access services. This was the first time the scheme was available to people that were not jobseekers on income support. However, people that were not in receipt of income support were not eligible to access the allowance. That allowance is equivalent to the single 22-or-over no-children rate of JobSeeker payment, which is $642.70 per fortnight. Entrepreneurship Facilitators focused on youth and the mature aged were also introduced in areas of high youth and mature-age unemployment.

In 2016, the high-disadvantage trial began, targeting a range of disadvantaged cohorts, including migrants, people with disabilities and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Six hundred places were allocated to providers to deliver these services. In 2018, the high-disadvantage trial was amended to focus on assisting migrants and refugees with NEIS providers, and they were able to access these places on an as-needed basis. Feedback from the trial indicated participants found that flexible training much better suited their needs. They valued the increased mentoring and coaching to develop business plans and started operating businesses.

In 2020, eligibility to access the scheme was amended to support part-time businesses to assist those with caring responsibilities or working part time. Microbusinesses impacted by COVID-19 were also able to access support to pivot their business to remain viable.

From 1 July 2021, veterans transitioning out of the Australian Defence Force were able to access workshops and commence NEIS training while still in the ADF to explore self-employment while still employed. Strong demand emerged during COVID-19, with fewer traditional jobs available. Many jobseekers sought to create their own job by starting a new small business. Additional places for the NEIS program were made available to recognise this demand. Running alongside this is the Entrepreneurship Facilitators program, which compliments the Self-Employment Assistance program by promoting self-employment. It helped people to start and run their own business by providing information and advice, and by referring people to appropriate support services, including self-employment assistance providers. As of July this year, the Self-Employment Assistance program effectively replaces the NEIS and builds on its success through additional and more-tailored services that allow participants to choose what support they need for their small business.

This Self-Employment Assistance, or SEA, program commenced in all 51 employment regions across Australia and is a larger and revised version of the NEIS. It retains the successful components of NEIS while making small changes to small business and entrepreneurship services to make them more flexible and easier for jobseekers exiting and for microbusiness owners to access.

The bill we are considering, the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Self-Employment Programs and Other Measures) Bill 2022 amends the social security law and related elements of the veterans and the family laws. It is designed to make it clear that the law operates in the same way when participants access self-employment through services through the Self-Employment Assistance program.

The SEA initiative aims to promote self-employment through a range of activities, including microbusiness courses, business planning, business advice and business health checks. New program features include idea generation and an introduction to self-employment workshops, an increased number of eligible participants and a range of flexible services. Self-employment assistance includes additional individual support components such as business plan development, business advice sessions and business health checks. Overall, Self-Employment Assistance is a more flexible and tailored program and allows participants to access the service components in any order, based on their individual needs.

Providers also need to ensure that their services are accessible to all participants, including those with poor digital literacy, those from CALD backgrounds and those without access to appropriate technology and information. So people who may have experienced barriers to entrepreneurship in the past can now engage in the scheme through a wider range of services. This builds on the flexibilities that were recently introduced which allow individuals with part-time employment, education or caring responsibilities to access effective small business support.

The changes made to the scheme recognise the changing nature of small business ownership in Australia by giving participants, including individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds, greater flexibility in choosing which support they need to start and run their business, how they can access it and when they receive it. It is intended that the micro-enterprises will receive services that are more flexible and authentic. In this changing and often unpredictable economic environment, eligible business owners who have recently started trading or who need help to adapt their business can access appropriate business mentoring and advice.

As was the case under the NEIS, eligible income support recipients who access the program can receive a self-employment allowance from the government. This helps supplement the income a participant earns from their business so they can reinvest their business earnings in the business. Self-Employment Assistance is building on the NEIS's legacy of success by continuing its valuable support, but through more flexible services that help a wider range of people secure their future.

We know this program works. NEIS has achieved excellent results from a diverse range of participants who have accessed its services. Three months after exiting the program, 82 per cent of participants remained in employment, and 68 per cent were still running their business. And it supported women's economic security, with more than half of the participants who accessed NEIS over the past seven years being women.

Recently we've also seen a clear demonstration that the government can play a key role in helping businesses adapt in uncertain times. Since the onset of COVID, the NEIS has helped many businesses pivot to deliver services in new and innovative ways to remain viable.

This bill will update the social security, veterans and family laws to make it clear that the Self-Employment Assistance payments will be treated in the same way by the law as any other NEIS payment. The same will apply if the Employment secretary ever notifies of a different name for Self-Employment Assistance. The bill will therefore provide increased clarity for participants as they support themselves by establishing the businesses.

Just one example of many exciting outcomes of the scheme is The Mountain Experience abseiling and rock climbing adventures based at Mount Wellington in Tasmania. After 10 years of working for other people as a tour guide and rock climber—

Debate interrupted.