13 May 2026

Post Estimates Wrap

It’s been a huge few weeks of senate estimates with lots of interesting information coming to light which I’ll summarise below. But first a few other updates.

Artificial intelligence and data centres

After raising concerns in the last parliament about the impacts of artificial intelligence, AI and data centres are an increasingly hot topic here in Australia with tens of billions of dollars pouring into data centre construction while alarm bells ring about the impacts on our power and water supplies, on communities, as well as what is being done to ensure Australians get the benefits of this ‘revolution’, especially when we know big tech is very good at offshoring profit. I wrote a piece for the Guardian recently posing these and other questions.

Big lobbying win

As you know I’ve been pushing for reform around lobbying for years and last year created a voluntary public register of sponsored passes which give lobbyists privileged 24/7 access to parliament house.

I recognise lobbying plays an important role in our democracy but there should be more transparency around things like access, ministerial diaries and greater consistency in how in-house and third party lobbyists are regulated. Senior staff should be subject to mandatory cooling off periods in the same way Ministers are, for example.

It seems like pressure has again paid off with reports today that the government will create a public lobbyist pass register, limit the hours of access by lobbyists to parliament house and disclose sponsors. I’d like to see this reform go further but this is a big win and one the community should be really proud of.

NDIS & CGT Hearings

I spent two days this week in hearings about changes the Albanese Government wants to make to the NDIS. A lot of the testimony was really hard to listen to and I want to thank everyone who testified or made a submission for their courage in speaking up. It was particularly disappointing to see that none of the state and territory governments fronted up to the inquiry. There is a clear case for cracking down on fraud and reforming parts of the scheme, but there are also very serious concerns about the power the legislation gives the minister to make indiscriminate cuts across every person’s NDIS plan and how this will increase isolation and make people unsafe. I’ll be weighing up the evidence and contributing to the senate report over the next few days.

I’ll also be participating in the two days’ worth of hearings on the Government’s legislation to make changes to negative gearing, CGT and the tax treatment of trusts at the beginning of next week.

Norfolk Island

I capped off the senate estimates fortnight with a trip to Norfolk Island to see constituents there. I was honoured to have been invited to witness Bounty Day, and take part in a small away by laying a wreath at the cenotaph to commemorate the Norfolk Islanders who died in service to the Commonwealth.

For those who may not know, Bounty Day commemorates the arrival of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions in 1856, marking the beginning of the current chapter in Norfolk Island’s cultural journey. It is the most special day on the Norfolk Island calendar, and it was great to have been invited to see it up close.

As always, it was good to catch up and meet with Norfolk Islanders to discuss the issues that matter to them, including their continued loss of access to democratic representation on the Island. I’ve brought back lots of questions to ask the Australian Government, and look forward to continuing to advocate on the behalf of those on the Island.

Upcoming events

Next Town Hall 16 June, Tuggers

Join me on Tuesday next week,16 June, I’ll be hosting my second quarterly Town Hall for 2026 to unpack what the Federal Budget handed down on 12 May means for Canberra and our community at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre

This is an opportunity to better understand what’s been announced, what’s missing, and where we go from here. I’ll be joined by economist Katherine Trebeck, who will provide expert insight into the broader economic context and help break down what the Budget means for households, services and our future.

We’ll kick off with a presentation before opening up for a Q&A. You can submit and upvote your questions on Slido here and we will also be taking questions from the floor on the night.

We’ll be providing some Fricken Chicken before formalities kick off for those who’d like to arrive a bit early to grab a bite and have an informal chat. RSVP and more info here.

Common Wealth screening 26 June

Join me and writer-director-presenter Kane Guglielmi for a special screening of a new documentary from Madman Entertainment called “Common Wealth” at Kambri ANU on Friday 26 June. The film is shot across eight countries and poses big questions about whether there are better political and economic systems than the ones we have currently.

Mobile Offices

I hold mobile offices across the ACT for Canberrans to come and raise issues, share views or just have a chat about life in our community.

My next mobile office on 19 June has filled up quickly but you can keep an eye out for cancellations, and I am holding another on 24 July and 28 August.

Country Night

This morning I met with Sharon and Cameron Hardy who are doing extraordinary work supporting AFP members through their charity, named in honour of their late son, the Brad Hardy Foundation.

One of their main annual fundraisers is coming up soon and promises to be a great night for those keen to head along and support.

Have your say

Office Move Survey

When I was first elected in 2022, I took over the lease on the electorate office from former Senator Zed Seselja for a small space away from the main thoroughfare in Gungahlin. While I love being out in the fastest growing town centre of the ACT I’ve had a lot of feedback that the location is out of the way, hard to find and hard to get to especially for Canberrans who live down south.

For the past three years I’ve been going through a process with the Department of Finance looking at potential alternatives. We’ve identified a location in Dickson that I think will make it easier to be more accessible for more people in our community. But I’m concerned about the costs of relocation. I’ve been advised that the move and fitout together with some necessary security upgrades will top one million dollars. That is a lot of money and I am very conscious about how we spend taxpayer money, so I want you to have your say about whether you think this cost is justified or not. I’m told that even if I don’t move they will have to spend money on security upgrades at the current office. If you have one minute to complete this super quick survey, I’d be very grateful.

AUKUS Survey

AUKUS is one of the issues people contact me about a lot. It's a decades-long commitment worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and Canberrans hold a wide range of strongly felt views on it, so I want to hear yours.

Last week, alongside Andrew Wilkie MP, I hosted the launch of the Public Inquiry into AUKUS. It's an independent inquiry that will examine the costs, the risks, the strategic case and the transparency of the AUKUS arrangements, the kind of scrutiny a commitment of this scale deserves but has rarely received. As you may know, I have real concerns about the lack of transparency around AUKUS, but this inquiry is about getting all of the questions properly examined, whatever your starting position. You can find out more about it here. The inquiry will report on 30 October 2026.

I intend to make a submission to the inquiry, and I'd genuinely like it to reflect what our community thinks - whether you strongly support AUKUS, strongly oppose it, or sit somewhere in between. I can't promise to represent every individual view, but I want to do my best to reflect the range of views held by Canberrans. If you'd like to share yours, you can fill out a short form here. Your responses will help shape my submission.

Estimates wrap

Over the past fortnight I've asked hundreds of questions of officials across eight estimates committees. It's one of the most important and most enjoyable parts of the job - a rare chance to ask the questions that don't get asked anywhere else, and bring more transparency and accountability to government.

It can be slow going. Sometimes you get a straight answer, sometimes you get a wall, and plenty gets "taken on notice" and dealt with (or not dealt with) later. But it's worth the grind, because this is where things that governments would rather keep quiet tend to surface.

There was far too much to fit in here, so I've pulled out the highlights and grouped them into a few themes to give you a sense of what I've been digging into.

Transparency

A $198,000 contract without a competitive tender

Government procurement and “Jobs for Mates” are issues that get raised constantly with me and I asked about the process that led to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison's former principal private secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, being handed a $198,000 twelve-month public affairs contract with the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. The justification for awarding this tender without a competitive process raises serious questions, especially as there is already a dedicated communications team of 105 people on the books in the Department of Home Affairs.

Lobbyist passes to Parliament House

The lack of transparency around lobbyist passes is a huge concern to me, and I have set up a website to try and shine some light on who has all-access passes to the Peoples’ House, which has gained media attention. I asked the Department of Parliamentary Services how many sponsored passes are currently on issue. The number is up again since February estimates, now sitting at 2,322. I also pressed the department on gas companies refusing to provide details of their lobbyist passes when asked by a Senate committee; they've told me they're looking into it. And I asked about the review of the pass system being run by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, which is due shortly. These passes are a real privilege, lobbying has its place in our political system but Australians deserve to know who holds passes and how they're being used. I'll keep pushing for far greater transparency around sponsored passes.

FOI and the ANAO

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) recently audited how three departments administer the Freedom of Information Act, and the findings were damning. I put questions to officials about what they're doing in response, and I'm concerned that departments aren't lifting their FOI practices even in the face of that kind of criticism. FOI is one of the basic tools the public has to see what government is doing in their name. It shouldn't take a scathing audit to get departments to take it seriously. It’s also hugely disappointing that the Albanese Government is not fully funding the ANAO, meaning they will have to cut down on the valuable work they do.

Appointment of the new APS Commissioner

I asked the Finance Minister and officials about the process used to appoint the new Australian Public Service Commissioner. They confirmed the government used the "open competitive" pathway, which is welcome. But I remain concerned that far more needs to be done to stamp out the "jobs for mates" culture that eats away at trust in our public institutions, starting with publishing the details of how these appointments are actually made.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission

I questioned the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner (NACC), Paul Brereton, about his conduct in the lead-up to his resignation. The NACC has been marred by failures such as the handling of Robodebt, perceived conflicts of interest, and the NACC Inspector's finding that the Commissioner engaged in officer misconduct. We also learned that the Inspector is conducting two further investigations into the Commissioner.

I welcomed the resignation of the commissioner. The NACC has to be a watchdog the public has real faith in, and right now that faith has been shaken. I see this as a chance for a genuine reset: a new Commissioner appointed through an open and transparent process. It’s also an opportunity for broader reform to lower the bar for holding public hearings where it's in the public interest to do so.

A pork-barrelling slush fund

I asked the Department of Infrastructure about the Major and Local Community Infrastructure fund, a fund that is being used for pork-barrelling. Unfortunately, officials all but confirmed it's a slush fund. I also pressed them on what I thought were wholly inadequate responses to questions I put on notice on this issue at the last estimates: detailed questions met with single-sentence answers. Estimates is one of the most valuable accountability tools we have, and officials owe Australians proper answers to questions that go to the public interest.

Defence spending transparency

Too often, Defence hides behind national security to avoid telling Australians when major projects are running late and over budget. The Auditor-General has found that Defence's removal of information has diminished transparency to the point where the Major Projects Report (the annual independent review of our biggest defence acquisitions) is no longer fit for purpose. That's the government's own watchdog saying it can no longer do its job properly because Defence won't allow the information to be published.

What makes this worse is that Defence conceded the withheld details are largely about schedule and the volume of capability, which goes to the very heart of the problem we see at estimates after estimates: capabilities promised with great fanfare, then quietly delayed, cut back or transformed (one new submarine becoming a couple, becoming three second-hand ones). At a time of declining trust in our institutions, the answer is more openness, not less. I'll keep pushing for the Major Projects Report to be reinstated so Parliament and the public can actually hold Defence to account for how billions of taxpayer dollars are spent.

ACT issues

Convention centre, pool and stadium

Getting our fair share of infrastructure investment in the ACT has been an uphill battle I’ve been fighting since being elected. Progress is slow with small amounts of preliminary funding being handed out at election time, but little real progress. Questioning the Department of Infrastructure revealed that the ACT Government has not requested any further funding to progress the Commonwealth Park Aquatic facilities and ensure there will be like-for-like facilities including a dive pool and dive tower. On the stadium we’re waiting for yet another feasibility study due in July and on the Convention Centre the Department took on notice details about the size and scope of the future venue. I’m keen to ensure they don’t skimp and the new facility meets our needs as a growing city.

Rail

I didn’t have much luck on rail either. The $50 million federal budget announcement isn’t going to add to rolling stock or the capacity of services. They couldn’t give me any details about whether land corridors are being reserved for a future high speed rail connection or even whether any planning work was underway for what’s known as the Wentworth deviation from Macarthur to the Southern Highlands which could dramatically speed up the journey. A better rail connection to Sydney is something I know Canberrans care about and I will keep asking questions to ensure we are set up for the future.

National Capital Authority (NCA)/Hume Circle Precinct

Another issue that I know is causing a lot of concern for locals is the National Capital Authority’s proposal to amend the National Capital Plan to create a new precinct at Hume Circle known as Draft Amendment 102. I asked the NCA at estimates and their recent biannual public hearing about how they are addressing the community’s concerns about traffic, overshadowing and other key infrastructure concerns. I’ve also raised this with the Minister and will keep pushing for a joint committee inquiry into the proposal.

CSIRO cuts

I want to acknowledge the additional $387.4 million over four years for CSIRO. After years of pressing for greater investment in our national science agency, this is genuinely welcome and a huge win for community advocacy. But I was concerned that leadership couldn't rule out further cuts. When I asked directly, the answer I kept getting was that CSIRO needs to "hold space for prioritisation," which as best I could tell means that given the 1% annual increase in CSIRO’s budget, more cuts have to remain on the table. Officials confirmed around 350 staff are going as part of changes already announced. The new funding has slowed the pace, which is a real relief for staff after a brutal couple of years, but "we'll always hold space" is not the same as "no more cuts," and I'll be watching closely.

What worries me most is cuts to climate modelling. CSIRO confirmed three people have been impacted at ACCESS (the team that runs Australia's national climate model) and couldn't say whether the model development team has shrunk from 12 to seven, taking that question on notice. These are tiny, highly specialised teams, and once you lose that expertise it doesn't come back easily. When I pressed officials on how a handful of people could maintain a world-class model, I was told other agencies like the Bureau of Meteorology can absorb some of the work and that the model is now in a "more stable phase." I'm not convinced. We are living through an unprecedented and rapidly changing climate, and the idea that these skills are becoming surplus to requirements is hard to accept. You cannot cut the people who build the model and then assure everyone the capability is fine. I'll keep pushing to protect this work.

If you haven’t already, you can sign my Save Our CSIRO petition here.

Fairbairn Golf Course divestment

Fairbairn Golf Course is a much-loved club whose membership is largely made up of Defence personnel and veterans here in the ACT. So I was troubled to learn how they've been treated. Defence renegotiated the club's licence to occupy in mid-2025, locking them into another five years, at a time when divestment of the site was already being worked through with government. When I put it to officials and the Minister that this looked like poor-faith negotiation, there was no acknowledgement that it could have been handled better.

I also pressed Defence on what due diligence was actually done before listing Fairbairn for sale. The answer amounted to fairly basic valuations, environmental checks and a capability assessment. I'm concerned the land is contaminated and that this wasn't properly taken into account. Defence told me Fairbairn isn't a known PFAS remediation site, but that's not what I've been told by others. And when I asked what the land had been valued at, Defence refused to say, citing commercial-in-confidence. I'll be pursuing these questions, because the people who've used and cared for this site deserve far more transparency than they're getting.

You can find more information about the Fairbairn Golf Course, including a petition click here.

ANU

ANU fronted estimates for the first time since the resignation of former Chancellor Julie Bishop and four other members of the ANU Council. Acting Chancellor Andrew Metcalfe and Interim Vice Chancellor Rebekah Brown responded to questions ranging from the cost of reputational damage to ANU from Renew ANU to the ANAO’s findings, questions about the investigation into former Vice Chancellor Genevieve Bell, whether a formal apology to Dr Allen would be forthcoming, the findings of a recent Comcare review into ANU and crucially - the need for reform to ANU’s governance to guard against a repeat in future of the kind of epic leadership failures we have seen over the past few years. I’ll shortly be introducing a private senator’s bill to try and kick this along so stay tuned.

Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme

Another issue I raised after a constituent wrote to me with concerns was the limited number of banks offering loans under the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme and the higher interest rates ADF members have been paying as a result. This seems wildly unfair when there’s a panel of over 30 lenders for the Government’s 5% deposit scheme and that the government has essentially revenue-raised some $170 million off the back of ADF personnel’s interest payments. The new lender panel will be announced in July and I’ll be looking at it closely.

Health, NDIS and Social Services

Gambling

I used Estimates to test whether the Government's proposed gambling advertising reforms will genuinely reduce harm or simply create new loopholes. Australians, particularly parents, are rightly concerned that children continue to be exposed to gambling advertising. The hearings raised serious questions about whether the proposed framework will adequately cover podcasts, digital platforms and emerging forms of advertising, while still allowing children to be exposed to gambling promotions during some live sport broadcasts. My view remains that reform should be guided by harm reduction and by the recommendations of the Murphy Review, not industry convenience. I'll continue working with colleagues across Parliament and advocates to push for reforms that properly protect children and vulnerable Australians from gambling harm.

Paraquat

Recently, Vermont became the first American state to ban the use of Paraquat - a widely used chemical for controlling weeds. The state joins more than 70 countries globally who have already banned it due to concerns it significantly increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Here in Australia there’s been a long-running review by the APVMA (nearly 30 years) but as yet no ban. I questioned why we are so far behind the rest of the world on this. It’s an issue I will keep pursuing until the APVMA reaches an outcome - one that I hope will put human health first.

Sunscreen

Many people would recall the controversy that emerged when Choice tested a range of popular sunscreens only to find that most completely failed to offer the level of SPF protection advertised on the packaging. But it turns out a bunch more sunscreens haven’t been tested and questions about the testing laboratory being used in the US remain unanswered. I have to confess to being more rather than less confused after questioning the TGA about which sunscreens offer true high level protection.

Zoladex

Another really distressing issue raised by a constituent is Astra Zeneca’s decision to no longer supply the Goserelin 3.6mg implant, also known as Zoladex, a life-saving medication used to treat both breast cancer and endometriosis from November. Bafflingly however, they will continue to supply a higher dose of the same drug for prostate cancer treatment. When I questioned Department of Health officials about this they said they had been “in discussions with AstraZeneca and a range of other companies about the retention, but the company has advised that they are removing that item from a number of markets, including Australia, and that that's been a commercial decision.” This is clearly hugely disappointing from a company the ABC estimates received close to $1 billion in taxpayer funding during the pandemic. Following the hearing, I have requested a meeting with AstraZeneca and will continue to ask questions about why this drug is being removed and how patients already using this drug can continue to access it while they need it.

Aged care wait times

At Budget Estimates, I questioned the Department about the release of new aged care wait time data showing older Australians are still waiting, on average, around a year to access the care they need. I was particularly concerned about the timing of the report's release on Budget Day, when journalists are quite literally locked in a room without access to the internet.

While the Government has made some welcome investments in aged care, it’s clear that Australians are still waiting too long for access to aged care services - and in fact, Canberrans are waiting the longest, according to this data. Behind every statistic is a person, a family and often a carer doing their best while waiting for support. I'll continue pushing the Government to reduce wait times, improve transparency around demand and ensure older Australians receive timely care, not just promises.

Climate and environment

BHP receiving hundreds of millions in Fuel Tax Credits

Last financial year, BHP paid around $8 million under the Safeguard Mechanism for the emissions from its Western Australian iron ore operations. Over the same period, it received $379 million back in fuel tax credits for burning diesel at those same WA operations. That means it paid nearly 50 times what it paid to meet its climate obligations. Across all its Australian operations, BHP collected some $622 million in fuel tax credits.

Thanks to a terrific Four Corners and Guardian investigation, we also now know that BHP's own leaked internal documents conclude the Safeguard Mechanism won't materially affect its largest operations for another 14 years, with BHP’s Pilbara emissions forecast to fall by just 1% by 2030. For the world’s biggest miner and Australia’s biggest user of diesel, the scheme that's meant to drive down emissions barely registers.

I put this to the Minister and officials at Estimates. What concerned me most was their confirmation that no one - not the department, not the Minister's office, has ever raised with Treasury the way these two policies pull against each other: one nominally pricing emissions, the other handing the biggest miners hundreds of millions of dollars to keep burning diesel. As Kate Chaney MP put it on Four Corners, we're decarbonising with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator. It makes no sense to have these two schemes working flat out against each other while no one in government is willing to even look at it. I'll keep pushing for that interaction to be examined properly.

Funding for gas and the Middle Arm petrochemical precinct

The gas industry has spent $11.2 million on a campaign telling Australians it gets no support from government and therefore shouldn't have to pay a 25 per cent export tax. So I wanted to test that claim against the so-called Middle Arm "sustainable development precinct" in Darwin, a project with $1.5 billion of federal money attached to build common-user infrastructure that gas exporters will rely on. When I pressed the Minister on whether he'd at least concede that $1.5 billion of taxpayer money would benefit gas companies, he wouldn't, even after officials confirmed that one of the named proponents is Tamboran, a US-owned gas company, and that processing gas from the Beetaloo basin is part of the business case.

If the government can't even admit that $1.5 billion for gas export infrastructure is support for the gas industry, we have a problem.

What concerned me just as much is that the money is sitting there with no deadline at all. We're six years into this project and four years into federal involvement, the Northern Territory government's business case still hasn't cleared Infrastructure Australia, and when I asked how long the NT government has to get its act together, the answer was effectively "as long as it needs." So $1.5 billion sits in the contingency reserve, open-ended, for a gas export hub - at a time when the budget is tight, departments are losing funding and real cuts are being made elsewhere. I think that money could kickstart genuinely productive industries in the north, rather than yet more gas. I'll keep pushing the government to set a deadline or put the money to better use.

You can find out more about my campaign for a 25% tax on gas exports here.

Nature continues to suffer from lack of investment in the budget

Australia is a megadiverse country with an appalling track record on extinction, and this budget did virtually nothing to turn that around. The government has committed to no new extinctions, but the Biodiversity Council's analysis of the budget shows that spending on on-the-ground conservation is still just 0.06 per cent, when the experts say it needs to be around 1 per cent to actually deliver on that promise. When I put this to Minister Watt, he didn't accept the criticism, pointing to broader environment spending and to reforms to our environmental laws. But you cannot promise no new extinctions and then fund nature at a fraction of what your own scientists tell you is required.

It gets worse when you look at where the money goes. The government's flagship Saving Native Species program runs at roughly $50 million a year, yet it has put $83.9 million into a separate pool of election-commitment grants that, by the department's own admission, weren't merit-based and went through no open application process. So we're spending more on a grab-bag of untargeted election promises than on the central program everyone is told to go to for species funding.

The consequences play out close to home: an endangered koala was sighted at Jacka in Canberra's north last October, right where 88 new houses are planned, yet there's been no referral on the EPBC portal and the department couldn't tell me whether the land could still be cleared, or even whether anyone has properly surveyed for a koala population. This is what chronic underinvestment looks like on the ground: we hand over approvals without the data or the resources to know what we're losing. I'll keep pushing the government to fund nature properly, because right now we are managing decline rather than reversing it.

EV Charging infrastructure

Australians are switching to EVs in huge numbers, but public charging isn't keeping pace and the government has just quietly wound back its ambition. The Driving the Nation program was meant to deliver 117 fast-charging stations to plug the gaps in our highway network. At Estimates I learned only 50 have been built, and the target has now been cut to 77, with funding reduced from $39.3 million to $26.6 million, even as officials conceded that there's never enough charging. The contrast with the government's priorities is stark: around $21 million spent actually building chargers, against some $90 million last term advertising two policies, Future Made in Australia and the stage 3 tax cuts. If we're going to build a national charging backbone, we should do it properly.

I also raised something every EV driver will recognise: needing a different app for every charging network. You roll up somewhere remote, there's no reception, and you're stuck downloading yet another app just to buy some electrons. It should be as simple as paying for fuel. A small thing, but exactly the kind of barrier that makes switching harder than it needs to be.

Disaster Readiness in light of Super El Nino

I am concerned we are not heeding the warnings about a potential ‘super El Nino’ next year and the impact that will have on communities, farmers and the environment. I asked questions of our National Emergency Management Authority who pointed me to the programs that are working in communities. As important as these are, we spend a tiny fraction of what experts say is required to help communities be prepared for climate-fuelled disasters, meaning we are less prepared and the impacts are far greater - with bigger clean up bills. This is something we have to face up to as a country and start meaningfully investing in adaptation and resilience building.