It was another big sitting fortnight as parliament returned after the winter break. With lots of speculation around election timing there’s also a sharper focus on the government’s agenda and how they’re tracking in delivering what was promised at the last election.
Below is a summary of what I’ve been doing on behalf of our community and also a bit of a preview of priorities I’ll be pushing heading into the end of the parliamentary year.
Town Hall this Sunday 1 September
Holding quarterly town halls was part of my commitment to be accessible and accountable to our community and I’m excited that the next one is coming up this Sunday 1 September from 4 - 5.30pm at Wildbark, 25 Rosenberg St, Throsby and will be followed by a very special (optional) encounter with their resident Eastern Bettong. It will also be followed by a BBQ and the chance to stay for an informal chat.
The focus of this town hall will be on ACT-specific issues but it’s also a chance to update you on recent goings on in parliament and for you to ask questions and raise key issues.
Please RSVP here.
Mobile Office 2 September
My next mobile office is also being held on Monday 2 September from 9 - 11am at Double Shot cafe in Deakin, you can reserve a slot for a coffee and a chat here.
Koala Army march this Sunday 1 September
Ahead of my town hall on Sunday I’ll also be speaking at a really important rally on the lawns of Parliament House as part of the Australian Koala Foundation’s Koala Army March.
The March will start at Kings Park at 10am and make its way up to Federation Mall. You’re encouraged to dress as your favourite animal and there will also be a special appearance from the Weld Angel.
This will be an important way to show political leaders how dedicated our community is to preserving the biodiversity of our megadiverse continent. You can find out more about the event here and I hope to see you there.
You can also support this petition from the Member for Mackellar Dr Sophie Scamps to end Native Forest logging.
A big sitting fortnight
We have just finished a huge sitting fortnight in the senate, passing a stack of legislation, much of it pretty contested which you may have read about in the news.
On each of the difficult bills I’ve undertaken extensive consultation and sought to best represent the views of our community. As always I’m happy to take the time to explain these decisions and the negotiations behind them. I’ve put a summary below but please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the office if you want to find out more or share your feedback.
Gambling advertising ban
It's now been more than a year since a landmark parliamentary inquiry handed down a report with multi-partisan support (something that you would appreciate is incredibly rare!) calling for urgent reform after finding evidence of the significant harm gambling is wreaking on our communities.
The report, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, found that gambling advertising was “grooming children and young people to gamble and encourages riskier behaviour”. It made 31 recommendations for reform. The government promised to respond within six months but we are still waiting to see the legislation.
What we have seen is all sorts of reports, rumours and speculation, followed by a briefing from Minister Rowland about a plan from government for a partial advertising ban.
What the review, and all the other domestic and international evidence shows, is that partial bans don’t work.
That’s a total cop out so I called on the government to show some courage and moved what’s called an urgency motion in the senate calling on the parliament to support a phased-in, three-year, total ban on gambling advertising as was recommended by the Murphy Review.
This recommendation was re-stated by the government’s independent, expert, rapid review on responses to family and domestic violence released last Friday.
Disappointingly, both Labor and the Coalition, along with Senators Tyrrell & Babet voted against this while Senator Rennick crossed the floor to support, alongside the Greens, and Senators Van, Lambie and Payman.
I have heard from so many Canberrans calling for this ban and together with fellow crossbenchers I will keep pushing this - hard. Keep any eye out for a new advocacy push around this I’ll be launching very soon. You can read more detail in an update here.
Photo by Mike Bowers for the Guardian
CFMEU
The bill to put the CFMEU into administration following serious allegations of bikie gang and organised crime infiltration dominated a lot of the headlines and debate.
Ultimately it passed with the support of the Coalition following a number of changes negotiated with government.
I appreciate there are very strong views on either side of this debate, especially here in the ACT where there haven’t been the same kind of criminal allegations that we’ve seen elsewhere.
One change I was able to negotiate was aimed at bringing more balance in the form of a provision that would enable individual branches to be released if the administrator is satisfied that there are no concerns and that it is in the public interest.
NDIS
Another challenging piece of legislation was the bill to reform the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It’s been a really difficult time for people with disability and I’ve met with so many experts, peaks, local providers and participants and heard a huge range of views about what they thought needed to happen.
This was another bill that passed with support of the Coalition.
I’ve put together a detailed statement explaining my vote on that and invite you to read it here.
Deepfake bill
An important bill we passed dealt with deepfake porn. We need to be doing everything possible to bring down the level of violence, predominantly against women and children, in this country and protect our young people in particular from a growing number of digital harms.
The passing of that bill not only creates an important new criminal offence, it sends a strong signal that as a society we won’t stand for the use of AI to enable harmful behaviour in any form.
There is still a lot more work to do when it comes to regulating AI - especially putting in place some mandatory guardrails around the use of AI in high risk settings as well as banning its use in electoral material.
In March I got support from the Senate to stand up a Select Committee inquiry on Adopting Artificial Intelligence. It’s due to report on 19 September and you can find out more here.
Net Zero Economy Authority and Climate Disclosure Bills
Significant improvements to climate policy were achieved with the passing of a bill to establish a Net Zero Economy Authority and require large companies to disclose climate risk and opportunity.
The Net Zero Economy Authority will work to ensure that workers and communities in regions significantly impacted by the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy enjoy the benefits of the transition. In particular, the Authority will provide support for workers and communities that rely on coal mining to transition to the industries of the future. International experiences show that getting this transition right is fundamental to economic growth and climate action.
I would like to see the Authority work to maximise benefits in other regions, particularly those in which renewable energy will be located. I will continue to push the government to make sure that community benefit, not corporate interests are at the heart of the transition.
The passing of a Bill that requires climate disclosures will transform the flow of capital to better account for the huge challenge of dealing with a changing climate. From 1 January 2025, large companies will have to disclose their exposure to climate risk. Following international standards applied in other jurisdictions, this will allow investors to make more informed decisions and allow Australia to remain a competitive destination for investment capital.
Following negotiations with the government, they agreed to an amendment I put forward to force companies to plan for a future affected by significant climate change, rather than a future where 1.5 to 2 degrees of warming is achieved. You can read my Additional Comments to a Senate Inquiry into the bill here.
Public Service Amendment Bill
Another small but important piece of legislation, the Public Service Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2024, also passed the Senate. It makes changes to the Public Service Act recommended by the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme and allows the Australian Public Service Commissioner to inquire into whether a former department head has breached the APS code of conduct.
The bill is particularly important in light of the concerning decision of the National Anti-Corruption Commission not to undertake an investigation into the horrific Robodebt Scheme tragedy.
Middle Arm senate inquiry report
I participated in an almost year-long senate inquiry into the Middle Arm petrochemical precinct in the Northern Territory, which wrapped upon 21 August. Based on the findings and evidence presented to the committee, I concluded that it poses unacceptable risks to human health, the climate, biodiversity and cultural heritage.
In my additional comments to the committee report (which you can read in full here) I called for a full investigation of the circumstances in which $1.5 billion in Commonwealth funding was committed for the project.
Middle Arm is a piece of land adjacent to Darwin and is currently occupied by an Inpex gas terminal, allowing the export of Australian gas (without paying any Petroleum Resource Rent Tax). It’s just 7 kilometres from Dawin suburbs. Despite this, the Northern Territory Government is proposing to develop a precinct based on gas processing and export.
The $1.5 billion commitment was made without rigorous analysis, a business case of substance or any convincing cost-benefit analysis following intense lobbying from vested interests,particularly the gas industry.
If it goes ahead, the impact of the project will be huge. It would open up gas fields in the Beetaloo Basin and in the Timor Sea, resulting in billions of tonnes of CO2 emissions. The project would also pose huge risks to human health in the area. The risks to residents living near this gas and petrochemical precinct include higher rates of hospitalisation for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, increased rates of childhood leukaemia, reduced life expectancy from all causes and increased rates of miscarriage.
Electrification and Energy Efficiency Showcase
Household electrification and improvements to energy efficiency can save people money and support action on climate change. To demonstrate the opportunity on offer, I hosted a panel discussion and showcase of businesses at Parliament House and invited politicians from across the political spectrum.
My thanks to all the incredible ACT businesses that showcased their products, to the incredible crew at Electrify Canberra, the amazing panellists and the Smart Energy Council and Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council for sponsoring the event.
I will continue to push the government to invest more in household electrification and improving energy efficiency. In particular, I will advocate for a proposal put forward by Electrify Canberra to establish an electrification accelerator right here in the ACT.
Support to Save Community Legal Centres
I was really pleased during the sitting fortnight to host a briefing for parliamentarians and stand up alongside independent colleagues together with Community Legal Centres Australia and Women’s Legal Centre calling on the government to urgently increase funding as recommended by the Mundy review. Access to legal assistance is a critical part of confronting the crisis in family and domestic violence. Already community legal centres are turning away 1000 people a day on average nationwide. I will keep pushing this heading into MYEFO and the next federal budget. You can read more about the detail here.
Senate Committee Work
There’s been a lot going on across different senate committee inquiries. In the past few weeks I’ve attended hearings into the proposed build-to-rent legislation, the bill to cap international student numbers (among other things) and Future Made in Australia.
These are all important bills and the inquiry process is teasing out key areas where they can be improved.
Time running out for reform
I mentioned gambling and AI above but there’s a long list of other urgent reforms we are still waiting to see action on that the government promised to deliver in this term of parliament - and time is fast running out with just five sitting weeks left to go this year.
While Labor has had a pretty full agenda, I’m really concerned that on a lot of issues they have lacked courage and ambition, kicking the harder reforms down the road.
Things like rewriting our broken environmental laws, a tough one for sure but also urgent, looks like being put off until the next term with only legislation to establish a national environmental regulator being brought forward now.
The hard changes to higher education is another. Fixing the failed Job Ready Graduates program that has spiked the cost of degrees and led to staggering debt burdens for so many students looks like being postponed, possibly for years. While legislation has now been introduced to change the rate at which HECS-HELP debts are indexed, it doesn’t go the equally problematic issue of timing, meaning students will continue to be indexed on amounts already repaid.
There’s been talk now for months that a package of legislation dealing with electoral reform is coming but it's yet to materialise in the parliament and reportedly won’t come into effect until after the next election. Based on what we know so far I’m really concerned that this could end up being another stitch up between the major parties. We need to see fair changes to political donations but also strong truth in political advertising and for Labor to deliver on their commitment of additional Territory Senators.
There have been reports of a looming deal between the Coalition and the Government on a new Aged Care Act but no detail as yet.
Better protection and compensation to Australians who fall victim to scams is another policy area I’ve been pushing with Government. I met with both the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer last week about these and other issues and to make the case for legislation to urgently be brought before the parliament. Increasingly we are lagging behind the rest of the world in regulating this, leaving people in our community vulnerable.
Cost-of-living is still one of the most pressing issues consistently raised with me. From the increasing cost of groceries to skyrocketing insurance premiums and unaffordable housing, there is a lot to do to address the cost-of-living crisis being felt across the ACT. I spoke to the Senate Chamber about the urgent need for reform to address cost-of-living pressures. You can watch the speech here.
Last sitting fortnight I also had the opportunity to meet with the new Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and run through a whole range of issues, from again raising the use of the old CSIRO Ginninderra site for new affordable housing, to the Help-to-buy scheme, Australians in mortgage stress and doing more to support renters. I’ve got my private senator’s bill on housing currently going through a senate inquiry and I look forward to working with the new Minister to hopefully get some more constructive outcomes in the senate on this critical issue.
Listening to the ACT community
In late June, I sent a letter to ACT residents that set out the things I’ve been working on, my priorities going forward and requested feedback on what is important to you and how I can improve. I’d like to thank everyone who responded. If you haven’t responded and you would like to, you can provide feedback here - I’d love to hear from you.
After reviewing the feedback received so far, I gave a speech in the Senate about what the ACT community is telling me is important, and the need for more ambition from the government. You can watch the speech here.
Thanks very much for reading and I hope to see you at an event soon.
Best,
David