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Working for the ACT community


Improving legislation

  • Considered 349 pieces of legislation
  • Successfully negotiating 221 amendments
  • 618 parliamentary speeches
  • 167 Ministerial meetings

Private Senators Bills

  • Duty of Care Bill
  • National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill
  • Fair Pay for Radio Play Bill
  • Fair and Transparent Elections Bill
  • Whistleblower Protection Authority Bill
  • Additional Territory Senators Bill
  • Lobbying Reform Bill

Senate Inquiries

  • Participated in 47 senate inquiries
  • Provided additional comments or dissenting reports on 25 bills
  • Instigated senate inquiries into:
    • Feral horses
    • Adopting Artificial Intelligence
    • Lobbyist access to Parliament House
    • Procurement

Consulting our community

  • Hosted 14 Town Halls
  • Held 13 Mobile Offices
  • Conducted 2 surveys of the electorate
  • Convened 15 roundtables
  • Multiple small business tours

Serving constituents

  • 42,080 constituent emails sent
  • Over 70 visa outcomes for Canberrans
  • 251 letters written to Ministers advocating for constituents
  • 5225 media mentions

Fighting for the ACT

 

Delivered

  • Restored territory rights
    Andrews Bill overturned, ACT given right to legislate voluntary assisted dying laws.
  • Centre for Disease Control
    Succeeded in convincing govt to base the $251.7m new Australian Centre for Disease control in Canberra.
  • $55m for the Upper Murrumbidgee
    Funding to improve river health and resilience, monitoring, water flow and to fix underlying issues with intergovernmental agreements.
  • $100m Active Travel Fund
    So the ACT can bid for a share of federal funding for more cycleways & active travel infrastructure.
  • $8m to reinstate ACCC flight monitoring
    Which has led to an immediate improvement in route cancellations out of Canberra.
  • Protecting ACT Universities
    By opposing a poorly drafted international student cap bill that would have hurt our economy & universities.
  • National Capital Investment Framework
    To start turning around decades of underinvestment in the ACT infrastructure.
  • Keep the AIS in Canberra and $249.7m
    To fund essential improvements.
  • Road safety data sharing
    So roads funding goes where it’s needed and is not pork-barrelled.
  • Protecting ACT Firefighters
    And making the ACT world leading in the number of cancers first responders are covered for.
  • Comcare Review
    To make sure it is working for the APS not against them.
  • National Cultural and Collecting Institutions
    Helped secure $500m in additional funding.
  • PTSD support for our first responders
    They no longer have to prove that their PTSD was caused by their job - making it far easier, and quicker to get the treatments they need.
  • Supporting Canberrans with visa issues
    Helped 170 Canberrans with visa issues, securing positive outcomes for 67 people.
  • Opiate dependency treatments
    Made them more affordable and secured extra funding for ACT pharmacies.
  • Humanitarian visas for Gaza
    A humanitarian visa pathway so people in Australia who have fled Gaza are protected and can access the support they need.
  • Census questions
    Pressured the govt to ensure LGBTIQ+ people are counted in the Census.

Still fighting for

  • Fairer representation for the ACT
    Getting Labor to deliver on their commitment to increase territory senators from two to four.
  • Funding for a Convention Centre & Stadium
    Pushing for federal govt funding for a new national convention centre & stadium.
  • Forgive the ACT’s historic housing debt
    So money provided under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement stays in the ACT.
  • GP Strategy
    To attract and retain more GPs in the ACT.
  • Bulk Billing increase
    So Canberra doesn’t have the lowest bulk billing rate in the country.
  • Expanding Paid Prac
    To other professions like physios.
  • Out of pocket health costs
    So Canberra doesn’t have the highest out of pocket health costs in the country.
  • Fair pay for the AFP
    So they are no longer the lowest paid police force in the country.
  • CSIRO Ginninderra site
    Releasing the CSIRO Ginninderra site for social and affordable housing.
  • National Human Rights Act
    So everyone's rights are protected and people have the power to hold governments to account.
  • A Vision for the Western Edge
    Handing back the Western Edge of the ACT to First Nations community to manage an area of high cultural and ecological value.
  • An emergency humanitarian visa framework
    To help Australians with family in conflict zones like Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan to quickly get them to safety.
  • A Multicultural Centre for Canberra
    So our multicultural Canberrans can celebrate cultural events and build community.

Cost-of-living & Small Business

 

Delivered

  • Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee
    Establishing a legislated expert committee whose work has led to two (modest) rises in income support payments & rent assistance + a review to stop the social security.
  • $6.3bn extra for Social & Affordable Housing
    Negotiating with government to index the $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund.
  • Household electrification accelerators (~$100m)
    Negotiated government support for a suburb-wide household electrification accelerator project in every state and territory.
  • $67.5m Frontline worker funding
    Successfully lobbying government to restore funding for frontline homelessness services workers.
  • National Construction Industry Forum
    Established to bring government, unions and industry together to work through key challenges like gender diversity and security of payments.
  • $10m for Small Business
    To help administer government parenting payments.
  • IR exemptions
    Small businesses exempted from a range of IR changes.
  • Review of small business definitions
    A review of how small business is defined in workplace law.
  • HECS
    Pushed government to reform HECS indexation rate.
  • $6m for migrant support agencies
    To support wage increases in a female-dominated social services sector.
  • Costs Protection Bill
    Negotiated a review of the operation of the bill to ensure that unintended consequences on small businesses are addressed.

Still fighting for

  • Nationwide household electrification
    Programs to support all households and small businesses to electrify.
  • Double the size of the Housing Australia Future Fund
    To $20bn given huge demand and capacity to deliver social & affordable housing.
  • Statutory Trusts
    To ensure subcontractors get paid for work done.
  • Permanent, higher Instant Asset Write Off
    Legislating a permanent, $30,000 instant asset write off for small business.
  • Scam reimbursement model
    To protect victims of scams.
  • HECS/JRG
    Pushing government to reform HECS indexation timing and abolish Job Ready Graduates costing students thousands.

Climate and Environment

 

Delivered

  • Emissions reductions target
    Key vote supporting legislating an emissions reduction target and negotiated key integrity reforms.
  • Safeguard mechanism
    Voted in support of establishing a safeguard mechanism and negotiated key improvements.
  • EV Bill
    Ensured that fossil fuel vehicles were exempted from tax incentives for electric vehicles.
  • Climate risk disclosures
    Negotiated an amendment to require companies better model physical risk of climate change.
  • Restoring Our Rivers Bill
    Negotiated an amendment to provide greater transparency on releases into the Murrumbidgee River.
  • Invasive species management
    Negotiated $10 million in funding for gene drive technology to combat invasive species.
  • Feral horse management in the Alps
    Negotiated a committee inquiry that led to the removal of tens of thousands of feral horses from the Australian Alps.

Still fighting for

  • Invasive Species Future Fund
    $4bn Future Fund to invest in eradicating invasive species.
  • Increase the PRRT
    To get a fair return on the sale of our resources.
  • Environmental Law Reform
    To fix our broken environmental laws and protect Nature.
  • Duty of Care
    To ensure that government considers climate impacts of new fossil fuel projects on the health of children and future generations.
  • A strong, independent EPA
    To ensure that decisions are made to protect the places and species we love.

Integrity

 

Delivered

  • National Anti-Corruption Commission
    Key vote supporting legislation to establish a National Anti-Corruption Commission.
  • Administrative Review Tribunal Bill
    Amendment to ensure appointments to the ART have greater integrity instead of political appointments.
  • National Student Ombudsman
    Responded to student concerns about safety on campus by pushing government to legislate a national student ombudsman and requirements on universities to better protect students.
  • National Firearms Register
    Pushed government to establish a national firearms register.
  • Integrity of funding for disaster relief
    Negotiated key amendments to the Disaster Ready Fund to provide transparency and integrity.

Still fighting for

  • Electoral Donations Reform
    Fair reform that increases transparency while still encouraging new entrants.
  • Lobbying reform
    Public register of sponsored pass holders, better definition of lobbyist.
  • Banning AI in elections
    Stopping people from using generative Artificial Intelligence in electoral materials.
  • 4 year fixed terms
    To make politics work better for people and improve long-term decision-making.
  • Whistleblower Protection Authority
    Private Senators’ Bill to be introduced to establish an authority.
  • Drafting resources
    To ensure independents can have amendments drafted on legislation on behalf of their communities.