Address-in-Reply

Ms PRICE (Durack) (10:31): It is a great honour to return to this place for a fifth term as the duly elected member of Durack. The responsibility of representing the largest electorate in the country is not lost on me. Covering over 1.4 million square kilometres, over half of Western Australia, Durack brings with it such a diversity of people, communities and issues that need addressing. Before diving into some of these issues, I would like to give thanks to everybody who helped to get me here. Being elected five times doesn't just happen, and it's in large part because of my electorate office team I have behind me, some of whom have been with me from the very start. So I give enormous thanks to you, De-Arne, Carolyn, Jackie, Leanne, Clare, Gen and Don, for all your support and your commitment to serving our fabulous Durack community.

I'd also like to thank my volunteers. I'm sure colleagues across all sides of the chamber would agree that having a friendly face at the booth makes a real difference to our constituents. There are a few in particular I would like to give a special shout-out to: Rob Dines; Kat Jackson; Randall Starling; Sally and George Gifford, who I call my Gingin heroes; Greg Kneale—he's my guy in the Pilbara—and Celia and Helen, who are definitely my Broome angels. And, of course, a very special mention goes to my Brad for all his care and support during and after each of the five campaigns. I simply could not do my job without you, and Durack constituents effectively get a two-for-one with Brad by my side. I want to also acknowledge the other Durack candidates who put their hand up at this election. I met many of you during the campaign and commend you and your volunteers for being part of the democratic process. Whilst we may disagree on the means to achieve a better Australia, we all want to see a brighter future, especially for regional Western Australians.

As we are all aware, the Liberal Party did suffer a very heavy national defeat on election night. However, these results were not echoed in regional Western Australia. In my own seat of Durack, Labor went backwards by 5.5 per cent, and, in the member for O'Connor's seat, Labor went backwards by 6.6 per cent. It's clear to me one of the reasons for this diversion from the national trend was the local response to the Albanese Labor government's destructive decision to end the WA live sheep trade. There are communities across regional Western Australia whose very existence is threatened by Labor's ban, and they were not going to let this happen without a fight. I heard from a lot of people that they had always been Labor voters, but they simply could not vote for them again because of this issue.

Regional communities have a very good habit of standing together when an outsider comes to tell them what can and cannot happen. In acknowledging the role live export had in Durack, I would also like to acknowledge the people behind Keep the Sheep. This was an organisation formed simply out of desperation to save an industry and the livelihoods of at least 3,000 Western Australians. In just a short amount of time, they managed to secure the signatures of over 100,000 fellow Australians who also wanted to tell the government that this decision was deeply unfair. With the ban set to take effect on 1 May 2028, I will continue to advocate on behalf of those affected communities across Durack.

This term I will also continue to talk about the importance of restoring the Australian dream of homeownership. We have seen young Australians practically give up on this dream in recent years, and this is a national crisis that requires immediate action. Supply is obviously part of the problem, but we have to be serious in acknowledging that demand plays its part as well.

Ten years ago my home state of Western Australia had a population of less than 2½ million people. Today, it has grown to over three million. This growth has been primarily driven by overseas migration. Let me be clear: Australia has a long and proud history of migration. But it is absolutely essential that policymakers wake up and realise that such high levels of growth are simply unsustainable. The current migration program is putting a heavy burden on housing, infrastructure and the hospital system. I was staggered by a recent report identified by the WA Liberal Party which showed that, since the WA Labor government took office in 2017, the number of daily active beds in metropolitan hospitals has increased by just 118. In that same time, the population has grown by 400,000. Is it any wonder that our WA health system is not working as it ought to?

The Albanese Labor government sought to neutralise this issue before the last election by promising to curb international student numbers and insisting that net migration would come down. Just three short months later, however, the government announced that it would increase the international student cap by 25,000 per year. This follows net migration numbers being consistently higher than Labor's budget projections.

Let's be clear about this. Labor's broken promises on migration are just pouring more fuel on the fire. Sadly, there are members opposite who—despite what they said at the time of the election—refuse even to admit that this high level of net migration is a problem, and instead resort to name-calling those who do.

I would like to state very clearly here that it is not bigoted or racist to say that Australia's migration system must work for those who are already here—those who've already chosen to call Australia home. Nor is it bigoted or racist to say that, right now, that isn't the case. I'm very proud of the incredibly diverse, multicultural community that makes up the electorate of Durack.

The coalition came to government in 2013 largely because of out-of-control illegal migration. I believe the coalition could return to government by promising to combat Labor's out-of-control legal migration. Energy will, of course, be similarly important for us to establish a pathway back to government. Australians are figuring out on their own that Labor's farcical renewables-only strategy is not working. Australians can figure that out all by themselves. They see it in their power bills, which have not gone down by the $275 promised by the Prime Minister.

The coalition has announced a policy development process relating to the energy and emissions reduction policies we will take to the next election. But two fundamental principles will underpin this work: (1) having a stable, reliable energy grid which provides affordable power for households and business; and (2) reducing emissions in a responsible, transparent way that ensures that Australia does its fair share. What is clear, though, is that intermittent power cannot sustain a successful and robust economy. I refer to the release this week of the Quarterly update of Australia's national greenhouse gas inventory: March 2025 report. The report says that emissions have decreased by 1.4 per cent compared with the previous year. Well, that sounds like good news, doesn't it? It sounds like the government has got this all under control. But, if you investigate why the numbers have gone down, you might think again.

Emissions linked to industrial processes and product-use emissions decreased by 4.7 per cent over the year to March 2025. Guess what the primary driver of this decrease was. It was with respect to a decrease in steel production. Similarly, emissions from agriculture are down because of a reduction in livestock numbers. I previously said that there is no way Labor will meet its emissions targets, but that's not entirely true. There is a way for them to do so. And, sadly, it is by decimating our heavy industry and sending those opportunities offshore. You can do that—you can send industry offshore and reduce your emissions—but is that good for our country? I don't think so. Domestic industries that no longer exist don't produce any emissions, so there you go—you've solved the problem. Close down industry and you get a reduction in emissions. So much for the Future Made in Australia!

As the member for Durack, I also proudly represent the second-largest Indigenous population of any MP. Improving outcomes for Indigenous Australians and the communities they live in has always been a priority of mine, and I was deeply troubled to see the news recently that just four of the 19 Closing the Gap targets are on track. While the Prime Minister was at Garma announcing a bunch of money previously slated and talking about an economic plan he'd referred to the year before, I was honoured to join the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, and the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians in the Kimberley. There, we had the great pleasure of meeting with community leaders, local businesspeople and health professionals who are committed to making a real difference.

We understand that prioritising symbolism over practical action, as this government has done repeatedly, won't improve the outcomes for Indigenous Australians nor the communities that they live in. As the Leader of the Opposition has said, we will continue to fall short until we address the following: the early years, and making sure our kids go to and stay in school; the mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, as plenty of money is spent but too much keeps going to the same things over and over; and the need for proper training and real jobs. These are all important issues that we as an opposition will need to respond to through effective policy development, and I note the measured approach outlined by the Leader of the Opposition. As Sussan Ley has said, we will be constructive where we can but critical where we must, and, while our policies are under review, our values are not. To be clear, the Liberal Party stands for individual freedom, reward for effort, limited government involvement, and a prouder and stronger Australia.

On top of being returned as the member for Durack, it is an honour to have been appointed as the shadow minister for cybersecurity and as the shadow minister for science. Shortly after I was announced as the coalition shadow minister for cybersecurity, Qantas was subject to one of the biggest cyber breaches in Australia's history. With 5.7 million accounts impacted, this was a nationally significant incident, and many in this parliament were affected as well. While no credit cards, financial information, passport details or pass codes were accessed, Australians still needed to take care of the data extracted to make sure that others couldn't take advantage of that information. Australians who have trusted a business with their personal information should have faith that their information is safe. The Qantas breach and the TPG iiNet breach in recent days demonstrates that this data is vulnerable. And I think that Australians deserve better. I've outlined to the Minister for Cyber Security that we are prepared to work with the government to better protect Australians' data, just as we did in the last parliament.

Australians are also right to be concerned about malicious cyberactivity threatening our national security. As the government's own latest Annual cyber threat report outlines, Australia is confronting its worst and most complex strategic environment since World War II, and this includes growing threats in cyberspace. State sponsored cyberoperations are ongoing and are an escalating concern, particularly as strategic competition intensifies across the Indo-Pacific. These actors are engaged in intelligence gathering, interference, coercion and attempts to gain a foothold within critical networks. Should the strategic environment deteriorate significantly, Australia could face major and disruptive cyberattacks.

The director-general of ASIO recently announced that the cost of espionage adds up to $12.5 billion a year, much of which is conducted in cyberspace. He outlined that the nations trying to steal our secrets include China, Russia and Iran. We should not be afraid to acknowledge the threat such nations pose, and we must improve our capacity to respond, particularly as the strategic competition increases. We should take reports that China is winning the cyberwar very seriously and respond with immediate action. We must work with our partners, especially the United States, to create a strong and united bloc that can withstand and respond to attacks.

Advancing cyber capabilities is, of course, an important aspect of AUKUS Pillar 2. To be clear, cybersecurity is national security. The coalition has called on Labor to commit to increasing defence spending to at least three per cent of GDP. This is incredibly important if we are to deliver AUKUS and to project collective strength. I believe Labor should also consider greater investment in cyberdefences, as has been committed to by the NATO alliance in the face of Russian aggression. NATO's recent commitment was to lift core defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and spend a further 1.5 per cent of GDP on broader defence and security related investments, including cyber.

I'm also very pleased to be returning to the Science portfolio. I had the great honour of being the Minister for Science and Technology during the Morrison government, and it has been so good to reconnect with stakeholders from that time and to connect with new ones as well. I am particularly excited to be back involved with the Australian civil space industry. When we were in government we established the Australian Space Agency and invested a record amount aimed at growing this very important industry. I moved a private member's motion on Monday in this place, outlining that, unfortunately, a lot of this investment was wound back in Labor's first term—very disappointing for the Australian space industry. I know Madam Deputy Speaker Sharkie, being a South Australian, will understand that only too well. This included Labor's decision to abolish the $1.2 billion National Space Mission for Earth Observation and to strip funding from the Technology into Orbit program, the Moon to Mars program, and the Spaceports program.

I was pleased to join the Parliamentary Friends of Space industry event last night and speak to members of the Space Industry Association of Australia. Despite Labor's cuts, there are still plenty of opportunities for Australia to benefit from the space revolution, but it is important the government start to send the right signals, right now, that will drive further investment. The upcoming International Astronautical Congress in Sydney provides the government with a great opportunity to begin to undo the damage of their first term.

In addition to space, I have, in recent months, been connecting with our universities and leading scientists. Increasing engagement in STEM—being science, technology, engineering and maths—has never been more important than right now. These are the skills Australia needs, and making sure more young Australians, and women in particular, move into STEM is a priority for me in this portfolio. I wrote to the Minister for Science, Senator Tim Ayres, in July requesting a briefing on the government's plan for the Science portfolio; I'm yet to hear back from Minister Ayres, but I've said before we will work constructively with the government where we can. I look forward to receiving a response from Minister Ayres.

I'll conclude by again thanking my electorate of Durack for giving me the great honour of once again serving as their federal representative. I will work every day to ensure their voices are heard and will try my best to represent both those who voted for me and those who did not. To me, as a member of the opposition, it is clear we have a big job ahead of us, but I can guarantee to the people of Durack that we are up to it. Those opposite currently hold 94 seats, an almost unimaginable result before election day. It is clear that the Prime Minister and the members behind him are still riding high and feeling pretty good about themselves, and anyone watching question time has already seen the hubris from those opposite coming across the chamber. But I'd like to remind those opposite that politics should not be about personal victories. Politics must deliver tangible results for Australians—for all Australians. It is my hope that this 48th Parliament delivers far more than the 47th.

Mr BURNS (Macnamara) (10:50): I would also congratulate the member for Durack on her re-election. It is a very challenging electorate, being so big, but I congratulate her on that. She's right that politics shouldn't be about hubris. It shouldn't be about congratulating oneself. It should be about policy outcomes for the Australian people.

After listening to the member for Durack, I would also put forward the fact that what wasn't in her speech was the fact that the coalition came to an election with a policy to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into nuclear energy while refusing to visit the sites where they were proposing to build those nuclear power plants; they had an industrial relations policy, which they scrapped about a month before the election, that was going to force people to stop working from home; they had a defence spending announcement, similar to the one that the member for Durack called for, to lift our defence spending, but they announced it 2½ weeks before the election and couldn't tell us where exactly they proposed to spend the increased defence spending; they wanted to increase taxes on Australians by not supporting our income tax policies; and they did not support the reduction in HECS debt or the range of policies that were going to build housing, including build to rent—they're still trying to oppose those. Also, at the time when the MAGA movement was proposing tariffs on Australian products and putting those tariffs on, the coalition were walking around this country wearing hats that said, 'Make Australia great again.' There is absolutely a need for us to remain focused on the Australian people, but it is also incredible that the coalition seem to have not learned any of the lessons from the last election and they spend their weekends at conferences talking about what policy they can put forward to undermine their leader.

While that happens, though, we have a job to do, and that is to deliver on the election commitments that we put forward at the last election. Let me say here, in this debate on the address-in-reply, that the most important message I have as part of this contribution is to say thank you to the incredible people of Macnamara. Our little nook of Melbourne is an iconic tourist hotspot that welcomes people in with culture, restaurants and food right across St Kilda, Port Melbourne and Southbank—all of the amazing parts of my electorate that help make Melbourne so iconic and such a wonderful place to visit. But it is also home to local communities and community organisations, including sporting clubs, faith based organisations, civil society organisations and LGBTIQ groups. It is a hub of life, and it represents the very best of Melbourne and the very best of our country. To be re-elected as the member for Macnamara for a third time is the greatest privilege of my working life, and it will be the greatest privilege of my working life. No matter what role I hold in this place, being the member for Macnamara is always the first and most important part of my responsibilities as a member of parliament. I owe a great deal to the incredible people of Macnamara, and I say thank you.

The team that we had in our campaign understand the privilege that it is to be involved in politics and how important it is to have these positions representing our community, and they all worked so hard in fighting for that privilege yet again. I would say to my campaign team, my staff and everyone who contributed in our campaign in Macnamara that I watched people take autonomy and ownership over a campaign. They worked based not on hours but on an internal desire to be a part of something, to do something for our community and to support me. I couldn't be more proud and appreciative of the efforts of so many people.

I'm not going to mention every single person, because I'll forget them, but I cannot give this contribution without mentioning Josh, Alissa, Kitty, Raph, Debra, Adele, Dakota, Sara and Daniel and, of course, the broader campaign committee team of Jane, Jack, John, Mikaela, Libby, David, Robyn, Peter, Madeline, Roman, Barney, Bridget, Jack, Julia and Graham and all of the Labor branches who were street stalling and doorknocking and phone banking. We set up our campaign office in Port Melbourne on Bay Street, and it was such a hub of activity and of campaigning and of events, and it was a place where people were just dropping in and people in Port Melbourne were walking by. It was just such a great place to be based, and I loved it. I want to say thank you to all the people who contributed to our campaign in Macnamara.

I also want to pay tribute to my political opponents, two people who worked extremely hard, as did their teams. The volunteers for Benson Saulo, who was the Liberal Party candidate, and Sonya Semmens, who was the Greens candidate, were incredible. They turned up and worked really hard for their candidates, and it was a great example of democracy in action. People were passionate but respectful, and we all gave it our best shot. I want to congratulate Benson and Sonya for leading their teams. They were both thoughtful and respectful, and it was a really good example of what elections in democracy can be. I only wish them both the best for the future.

To understand Macnamara is to understand, as I said, some of the most diverse but also vibrant parts of our country. We have incredible arts. We are the home, I think, of arts and cultural institutions in this country, in Southbank, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne. We have incredible national institutions, such as the National Gallery of Victoria, and we are investing in the redevelopment of the NGV Contemporary. We also have a large Jewish community and a vibrant LGBTIQ community. We are full of young professionals and people from every corner of the globe. Macnamara is extremely multicultural, with a growing Indian diaspora and a growing Chinese diaspora. We are proud of each and every nook of our wonderful part of Melbourne.

But one thing did bind and unite a lot of them when I was speaking to literally thousands of people in my community in the lead up to the election. In the lines and on the doors, the question I would often ask my amazing constituents was: 'What do you care about? What matters to you? What is going on in your world?' The answers that came back were a wonderful reflection and a wonderful mirror on the sorts of people that I'm privileged to represent. There were often concerns about their kids, their community, their family, the direction of their country and the sort of things that they want to see for our local community. It was rarely a situation about their own personal needs or anything like that. It was: 'What does our family need? What does our community need? What do the people I care about need? How do we help get through, frankly, pretty difficult economic times?' When you speak to parents, they are concerned about whether their kids can buy a home or that their kid are at university and have huge debts or even about being able to go and see a doctor. These were the sorts of things that kept coming back to me over and over again.

I think that, regarding this election, there are lot of things that are said and done about what happened here, why it was so successful and why it wasn't successful. Ultimately, I don't think there is a silver bullet. It's just about people. And what I heard from the people of Macnamara was that people cared about health care, they cared about jobs and they cared about having financial security. They want to be able to buy a home. They want to be able to do things for themselves and their families and the community that they love. They want to be safe. They want Australia to stand up for the values that they feel are representative of our community. I don't think it's more complicated than that. I don't think it's about tricks in campaigns and all of these sorts of other things. Ultimately, people think about their own lives. They think about what matters to them, and they think about what matters to their families. For every single person I spoke to in Macnamara, it was clear that the people that live in our community are thoughtful. They do watch politics in as so far as they think about what it means for them, their family and our community. That was ultimately what I think we got an endorsement, from not only the community of Macnamara but the broader Australian public, to deliver on. We got a mandate to deliver on policies that hopefully will make a tangible difference to the lives of Australians.

We've already started to roll them out and to deliver them in this place. The first bill we all voted on was to reduce university debts by 20 per cent. That is a fantastic acknowledgement of the genuine difficulties that young people and people with HECS debts are facing and of the importance of what this place can do, the meaningful difference it can have. If it means that someone leaving university is going to have $5,000 or $10,000 less of their HECS loan to pay off over the life of the loan then I think that's an important contribution. It's one that I was so proud to support and one that we've got done already. And even this week we announced that we are bringing forward the five per cent home deposit scheme, which is going to help first-home buyers.

That is something that kept coming up over and over again: 'What matters to you?' 'Well, we'd like to be able to buy our own home.' In Macnamara I met hundreds and hundreds of people, couples and families saying to me that that's something they want to do, but it's just not possible, and it's not possible because of the deposit. The conversation that often came back to me was that it is really hard, and while they're not saying it needs to be easy, it just needs to be possible. Without being able to get into the housing market, it's just not possible. For too many people, the deposit is the biggest barrier, while they're paying rent, and rents are expensive in my community. It has been just impossible for people to be able to get into the market.

That policy is really important. It's going to mean that thousands of people across my electorate are going to become homeowners. They're going to move out of the rental system and into the homeowner market. I think that's something that is really important and something that we as a government and as a Labor Party need to be doing more of—supporting ambition, supporting people to accumulate assets and find financial security in this country.

But it is not just the national policies that were so important at this election but also the local ones. That is one of the powers you can have in being a member of a government and being a local member and a Labor member of government. Part of my pitch and my request to the people of Macnamara is to say: 'If you vote for me as a member of a team, I will be in there supporting and fighting for the community inside government. But we can also get things done for the community from government.' Obviously I am privileged to represent such an amazing part of Melbourne, but some of the projects we have funded and committed to as part of the election are so exciting and will transform the way our community gets to experience so many different things.

I'm going to run through a few of them that I'm exceptionally proud of. The first is funding for the Australian National Academy of Music. This is an institution that was founded by Paul Keating. It trains Australian classical musicians. The academy has been here in this building many, many times, Deputy Speaker. If you haven't been to an ANAM concert, make sure you go down to the Speaker's Gallery or the Marble Foyer when they're next in the building. They are extraordinary Australian musicians from electorates right across the country who are training to be world-class musicians.

Previously ANAM operated in South Melbourne. There was a structural issue with the roof; it fell through—a pretty bad structural issue. But we are repairing that and restoring the old South Melbourne Town Hall so it will become the home of the Australian National Academy of Music. It's going to be there as a hub of music and community life, right there in South Melbourne. It's going to be so exciting. I went through there only recently with the minister to look at the work that's being done there. That is going to be such a wonderful feature for ANAM and for South Melbourne.

We also committed to $1.5 million for community safety for a range of supports for councils and the Victorian government around CCTV. That was something that came up a lot during the election. While we obviously don't control the Victoria police—that is a matter for the state government—we did ask ourselves, What can we do to help? And it was about having more CCTV and more lighting in some of those amazing high streets and thoroughfares, where there are a lot of businesses and a lot of people trying to make a living running amazing small businesses. We funded that, and we will deliver it across the City of Port Phillip.

The See Yup Temple in South Melbourne is a beautiful, incredible part of the history of our local community. This Chinese temple is I think the oldest continuous operating Chinese temple of its kind in Australia. Unfortunately a fire came through the temple, which destroyed a lot of the temple. Amazingly, the fire burnt around a lot of the most spiritual and elevated parts of the temple. It's almost a bit mysterious—but I don't want to get too woo-ey on Hansard! To see the See Yup Temple being restored, and us funding some of the restoration efforts, is something that I was really proud of. It is such a beautiful community there, and I look forward to seeing the See Yup Temple restored to its former glory and beyond.

JOY Media is another example of one of these community institutions in Macnamara that make our community so vibrant and strong. I believe it's the only LGBTIQA+ media organisation, or radio organisation, in the country that does it to this scale. They have community-led programs, but in such a professional way, that give voice and amplification to the issues, opinions, characters and people inside the LGBTIQA+ community. I couldn't be prouder that we are going to support them to ensure that their operations are full and vibrant and that they are able to do everything they need to reach more people and broadcast into more areas so that more people can see themselves, hear themselves, and be a part of LGBTIQA+ media programming.

We have committed $4.3 million to save the Windsor Community Children's Centre. This is a partnership that we are going to do with Stonnington. This is one of the great local, community-run early education centres. The land is currently owned by Swinburne University. We are working through those details, and we will work through them in good faith with Swinburne. This is such an important community asset; it is a magical little place, one of the best and highest-rating early education services in my electorate. We will fund it and help ensure that it can continue.

We are funding the Jewish Arts Quarter, which is going to be an amalgamation of a whole range of Jewish institutions in Elsternwick that will come together to build a hub, or quarter, in the same way we imagine Lygon Street in Melbourne being a hub of Italian life and Chinatown being a hub of Chinese food and culture. This is what the Jewish Arts Quarter is going to be for music, food, performances, the Jewish Museum, and some of the other cultural institutions. It is going to be a really exciting project, and we were so pleased to announce our federal support for that.

We're going to be investing in the Port Phillip Eco Centre. It will be a small, modest contribution but one that's going to invest in citizen science products and equipment so that the community can get involved in citizen science and environmental protection and work to be involved in this amazing organisation. The centre doesn't just work in Port Phillip but works right across Melbourne. Our small contribution is going to make a big difference and provide equipment and facilities for our local community to get involved.

We're going to restore St Dimitrios Hall in Windsor, which is a Greek community hall. My community in Macnamara is home to one of the most proud and vibrant Greek communities in Australia. Melbourne is one of the great Greek cities of the world, but Albert Park in South Melbourne has been home to the Greek community for generations. We love all of our Greek institutions. This hall in Windsor is a massive hall that, with a little bit of a touch-up, will make a big difference and create a vibrant place for the Greek community and the senior Greek community to come together.

They are some of the things that we're doing in Macnamara. They're vast and varied and reflect the fact that our community in Macnamara is vast and varied, and we were proud to commit to all of them. That's as well as rolling out the projects we have already committed to, including improving Albert Park sports facilities and building the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve, which was a commitment we made in 2022. The reserve is an incredible environmental wetland in the heart of inner-city Melbourne, on the border of Ellwood. There are so many things that we're doing around the electorate, and they're things that I'm really proud of and that I hope can make a real difference for our community.

I would say that this election was pretty brutal. It was pretty hard. It culminated in a couple of years of very difficult politics, and it seems that difficult politics like to drive through my electorate of Macnamara from time to time, as the last couple of weeks have also demonstrated. But one thing I know about the community that I am privileged to represent is that the people are kind, they're generous, they care about our community, they care about their families and they care about our country. It is the absolute privilege of my life to be the member for Macnamara. I'm extremely grateful for the extraordinary result that we achieved in Macnamara. I'm very grateful for the team that worked so hard to achieve this—this is our victory—but, most of all, I am grateful to the amazing people of Macnamara, who've given me this privilege to be their member for Macnamara for the third time. I will continue to work as hard as I possibly can to deliver for them, their families and our wonderful community.

Mr HASTIE (Canning) (11:10): Today I rise to speak on behalf of the people of Canning—my constituents, the families, the workers and the small business owners who embody the very best of our nation. The people living in my patch are hardworking, self-reliant and deeply community minded. They don't ask much from government—just a fair go, respect and the freedom to get on with their lives. Our community is resilient, ambitious and proud. We stand together in tough times and we celebrate each other's success. That's the spirit of Canning, which is the Peel region, for those of you who don't live in WA. I'm very proud to represent them in this place.

This year I was honoured to be re-elected as the member for Canning after a redistribution that reduced our margin to just 1.2 per cent. I was grateful that my constituents once again placed their trust in me. We achieved a strong result with a 5.4 per cent swing and a margin of over 13,000 votes. I'm deeply grateful for the support shown by our community and the way they've sent me back to Canberra to be their voice here in this chamber. Our result was a testament to the strength and unity of our local community and to the grassroots campaign we ran, focused on issues that affect real people. We didn't campaign in the abstract; we campaigned very much in concrete terms.

While national security concerns dominated headlines, my campaign was firmly local. Every day, I met with residents, listened to their concerns and committed to fighting for the things that matter most to them. Today, I bring their voices into this chamber. My team and I campaigned on the issues that mattered to them: cost of living, local infrastructure and community safety. We campaigned on health and, for nearly a decade, the Western Australian government has promised a $152 million upgrade to the Peel Health Campus. When they put that figure to the public in 2021—$152 million—that was before we saw inflation over the last four years. That figure is now about $180 million, and they haven't increased the funding in real terms, so we've actually taken a $30 million cut to the upgrade.

That promise has been repeated in press releases, budget papers and media statements, but the reality on the ground has not changed. One year after the hospital was handed back into public hands, with great fanfare from Labor, there has still been no redevelopment, no new facilities and no relief for the families, children and seniors in my community. Ambulance ramping is at record highs, doctors and nurses are exhausted, and clinicians warn the system is in a death spiral.

This is not just incompetence; this is actually really dangerous. People are left waiting in emergency. People are even sent away. I have countless stories from seniors, particularly, who are really struggling. For seniors who need to see a geriatrician, they have to wait up to 18 months. Some, by the time they get to see a geriatrician, have experienced further decline—whether physical or cognitive—and some have even passed on. So we have a very acute health crisis in my electorate.

Labor's own member for Mandurah has admitted the funding isn't enough, yet the Premier continues to sit on a multibillion-dollar surplus while our hospital bursts at the seams. We all know the WA budget is doing better than most other jurisdictions, and, yet, we're not seeing the investment in our health system that we need.

Locals are angry. They've shared their shocking experiences at Peel Health Campus. They're angry and they have every right to be. I'm calling it as I see it: this is a betrayal of my community. I'll keep fighting until the Peel Health Campus is fixed. No more spin. No more empty promises. Just action—because our community deserves better.

And it's not just in health. Right across the Peel region, we are being let down on the infrastructure that underpins our daily lives. We need infrastructure that keeps pace with growth, including roads, public transport and community facilities. People travelling to and from Perth everyday on the Kwinana Freeway experience a massive opportunity cost—a journey that used to take about 70 minutes can now take up to two hours at a time. That opportunity cost is time with family, time exercising, time doing admin and time doing other important things that happen in our daily lives.

Labor for a decade have promised a train station at Karnup, and for a decade now they've failed to deliver it. Another train station would help a lot of my constituents and would provide another alternative form of transport to and from the city every day, but we've got no funding, no timeline and no commitment. The land on which the train station will be built sits vacant while our growing suburbs of Karnup, Singleton, Golden Bay and Secret Harbour, suburbs recently added to my electorate as part of the redistribution, are ignored. They're taken for granted by Labor. There was not even a mention in the latest state budget. It's pretty shameful, and a lot of people agree. These are vibrant, fast-growing areas, and they deserve the same level of infrastructure investment as the rest of the region.

I'll also note that these suburbs are part of the AUKUS catchment, so we have a growing presence of Royal Australian Navy families, defence families and people involved in the future AUKUS industrial base. I should also add that we're going to see Americans moving into my electorate over the next couple of years as well. Admiral Caudle, who's a senior US naval officer, said there would be from 3,000 to 9,000 Americans moving in over the next five years or so. Those are a lot of people to integrate into our community. They're very welcome to come. I'm sure they'll bring a lot of opportunity as well. There are a lot of spouses in the US military who are teachers and nurses, and we have shortages in both fields. I hope this government is working on ensuring that they can be employed in our communities when they arrive. I also want to note as well that my electorate will take about 25 per cent of the new Defence housing which have been slated to support AUKUS. So we need more investment from the federal government and the state government as well, but instead we're being left behind.

The Karnup train station is a key data point for that. Labor's failure to act is not just a broken promise; it's a clear message that these communities aren't a priority. I've raised this time and time again, and I've launched a petition to hold the Cook Labor government to account. A station at Karnup isn't a luxury; it's a necessity. People don't expect us to make fanfare when we deliver these things; they just expect government to do them. They pay taxes, and they expect government to do these projects and do them on time. A train station would ease pressure on nearby stations, reduce congestion and give families the access they deserve. Labor wants us to forget about it, but I won't. That's why I'm speaking about it, and I'm more than happy to raise state issues as well because most constituents just want a better future for their families and a fair go. Whether it's at the local, state or federal level, I'll keep fighting for my people.

I first heard about the need for a local train station while I was doorknocking back in 2016. Locals were frustrated, ignored by their Labor MPs and fed up with broken promises. Despite fierce resistance from WA Labor, we stood firm and we delivered the Lakelands train station. Let's not forget that Labor ministers publicly dismissed the project. Rita Saffioti called it embarrassing. Paul Papalia said it was a station no one needed, and David Templeman sat at the cabinet table for years without delivering a cent for the Lakelands train station. Yet, when the station finally opened in June 2023, closing a 23-kilometre gap in the Mandurah rail line, they were very fast to show up for photo opportunities. That station wasn't delivered by Labor; it was delivered by the people of Lakelands who refused to give up. I'm proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with them, and together we got it done. I'll do the same for those people living in and around Karnup.

That same determination for a fair go on infrastructure is driving our campaign to reinstate the Pinjarra Heavy Haulage Deviation. This is another critical infrastructure project that WA Labor abandoned, despite its clear benefits to safety, heritage and quality of life. Hundreds of trucks thunder through the heart of Pinjarra. Pinjarra is a beautiful, old historic town right in the centre of the Peel region. It was settled around the 1830s, and every day we have these big trucks carrying huge loads, including jarrah logs, critical minerals that have been mined and massive mining equipment which often needs an escort at the front and rear. These trucks pass through our little town, and people are getting tired of it. We've invested money to make that a tourist town, and these big trucks make it very difficult for locals. A deviation would divert heavy vehicles away from the town centre. It would protect local families, businesses and the character of our community, which is sitting there on the Murray River—a very beautiful part of the world. Labor's decision to cut money for the deviation is short sighted and reckless. We're not backing down. Just like we did with the Lakelands train station, we'll keep fighting until Pinjarra gets the infrastructure it needs.

This isn't the only way that Labor is letting down regional and outer metropolitan communities. Labor's cost-of-living crisis has hit outer metro areas and regional Australia hardest. Fuel costs are up. Many people drive. There's limited public transport, so everyone has petrol or diesel costs in their family budget. Health premiums are up. There's a real lack of confidence in the public health sector run by Labor. People are paying health premiums, but they're creeping up. Mortgage and rental costs are up. We have a housing demand crisis. I've seen people at my local beach get out of their car in the morning after sleeping in the car, take a shower at the beach showers and then go off to work. This is Australia in 2025. We have an abundance of geography here, but somehow we have this housing shortage. It's a housing demand crisis, and I think this is because Labor's uncontrolled immigration has caused a lot of pressure on the housing sector. From the year 2000 to 2019, the average net overseas migration figure was 190,000 people. In the last two years, Labor has brought in about half a million people, and we wonder why we're struggling for housing. We shouldn't have people living in their cars. We shouldn't have kids living in caravan parks. We shouldn't have kids living in tents in the backyards of friends. It's shameful, and it's always in the outer metropolitan and regional areas where people do it tough, are hurt the worst.

Now Labor has introduced a new tax on the vehicles Australians rely on most. The diesel Prados, Rangers, LandCruisers, MU-Xs and D-MAXs are the workhorses of outer metropolitan areas and regional Australia. If you come down to the school where my kids go every morning, you'll see mums and dads dropping their kids off in four-wheel drives and utes, because their partner is a tradie or they work on the mines or they just like to go four-wheel driving. That's why they're living in the regions. Labor's so-called fuel efficiency standard is nothing more than a car and ute tax. It's driving up the cost of popular vehicles like the Ford Ranger, the Toyota HiLux and the Mitsubishi Outlander—vehicles that are essential for people living in my community.

I mentioned the metaphor of the workhorse of our local economy. It's true. My community, more than a hundred years ago, relied on horses for the local economy. We provided a good number of light horsemen that fought in the First World War. These vehicles do the same job today. These are the vehicles that tow the boats, the floats and their caravans. Tradies, farmers and families shouldn't be punished for driving the vehicles they need. Labor's fuel efficiency standard is driving up costs and limiting choice, hurting the very people who keep our economy moving. We have very, very few electric vehicle charging stations, but we've got a lot of people paying a fuel excise. It's not just bad policy; it's an attack on our way of life.

While they're taxing our utes, Labor are also pushing ahead with a massive offshore windfarm off my southern coast—all the way down the coast to Dunsborough, a beautiful stretch of the WA coastline. They're doing this without proper consultation and against the wishes of my community. The proposed zone spans thousands of square kilometres of ocean just 26 kilometres from our coastline and not far south of the proposed AUKUS submarine base. This project threatens our local environment, threatens tourism and threatens our recreational activities. It risks damaging marine life, ocean floors and bird habitats. We're very proud of our whales in WA. We're proud of our dolphins. These are the sorts of creatures that live in our oceans which will be affected by these wind farms. It will impose enormous costs on Australian families and business, because, let's be frank, wind power only works when the wind is blowing. There is incredibly expensive transmission infrastructure which needs to be built to connect these solar and wind farms that Labor are putting all over our country.

I think one thing that is overlooked is that these wind turbines and a lot of these solar panels, if not all, are manufactured overseas, often in China, using our fossil fuels, whether it be coal or gas, that we export. It's a reality that this country exports 25 per cent of the world's coal and 20 per cent of the world's liquefied natural gas. It's a huge source of revenue. It underwrites the NDIS, it underwrites health and it underwrites our welfare system. So, whilst Australians are being forced to pay more for their energy needs, countries who we export to are getting their energy much cheaper, which makes them more competitive in the long term.

Under this government, we're seeing local communities and their wishes overridden and we're seeing inefficient, expensive and environmentally-damaging solar and wind farms pushed on local communities. We're outsourcing emissions. This is a government that does a lot of carbon leakage. They claim they're green, but they do a lot of carbon leakage. They're increasing our dependence on foreign supply chains. We're not building these wind turbines. We're not making the solar panels. We're importing them from China. So, effectively, we're dismantling our comparative advantage in energy, which comes from our coal and our gas. We could have nuclear power because we've got a lot of uranium. We're dismantling that comparative advantage and we're making ourselves dependent on the importation of power made overseas. I think it's unfair and unsustainable.

Another issue is the unbearable odour affecting residents in the northern suburbs of my electorate. For those here it might sound like a minor inconvenience, trivial even. But for those living with it, this smell emanating from waste and compost facilities is making homes unlivable and outdoor spaces unusable, particularly in summer when temperatures hit 35-plus and you get a roaring easterly out to the coast. These smells are dumped on a lot of our coastal community living in the north of the electorate. Kids can't play outside, and people can't open their windows in the middle of summer. In fact, when I was doorknocking in Singleton, an elderly couple came to the door. Everyone else in the street was talking about the stink, and they said, 'We can't even turn our air conditioning on, because it smells like blood and bone in our living room if we do.' This is a serious disruption to their lives, their health and their homes. I've held community meetings, I've called for action from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and I've invited the Minister for the Environment to see the impact firsthand. This is just one of the many challenges facing our community. But, despite this, my constituents remain hopeful. They're proud of their community and they are determined to build a better future.

I want to acknowledge the people who came up to me on the street to have a chat. They might have given me a word of encouragement. Some of my favourite moments are, in fact, shopping at Coles in Halls Head, doing constituent work in the aisles. I remember the seniors I spoke to recently, who were trying to work out if they could afford eggs for the week. It's a great community, but rarely do I hear people whinge. They've always got constructive feedback or encouragement, and I thank them for that.

I'm proud to be a leader in my community and I don't take that responsibility lightly. Leadership is about service. That's what I learnt over the lake there at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Royal Military College, Duntroon. The motto for ADFA is To Lead, To Excel, and at Duntroon it's Learning Promotes Strength. Leadership in those institutions was always about service, and it's a privilege to continue doing that in public office in this parliament. It's about listening, learning and standing firm in the face of adversity. It's about representing the values of the people who sent us here: hard work, honesty and a deep commitment to our country.

Our schools are filled with bright, curious and capable young Australians. They're ready to take on the world, but they need a future that they can believe in and one that they want to step into—a future built not on debt and decline but on opportunity, stability, cohesion as a country and national pride. That future begins with a commitment to the people we serve, not just in election years but every single day. It's not easy. We're all imperfect people. There is not a single perfect person on this earth, and, particularly in politics, our imperfections can sometimes be magnified. That's just what comes with public office. But nonetheless, we need to fight for our constituents, for fairness, for prosperity and for the dignity of every single Australian. That's what leadership demands. It's about standing firm when it counts, speaking up when others stay silent and never forgetting who you represent.

Before I conclude I want to thank my campaign team, who worked tirelessly through the rain and on hot days because they believe in our community and our cause. I want to thank our volunteers who gave their time, energy and heart to our campaign. It's always encouraging when you meet new people who are willing to put on a T-shirt and stand with you—you'd know this, Deputy Speaker Sharkie—because they believe in what you stand for. So I want to thank all those people.

I also want to thank my family—my wife, Ruth, and our children—for their support and sacrifice. Next month, I'll have been 10 years in the parliament. My wife has spent the last 10 years having kids and raising kids, often without me present, and she does it because she believes in what I do in this place. So I want to acknowledge my wife, Ruth, for her love and her support. I also acknowledge my kids. My three-year-old said to me on Friday, 'Why don't you live with us anymore, Dad?' which was hard to hear. But my 10-year-old boy and my eight-year-old daughter explained that I go to parliament and I do it for a good reason, and I hope that one day she will understand why I've taken this job on.

I'll leave it there. Thank you very much.

Ms DOYLE (Aston) (11:30): I acknowledge that we meet on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples of this region, and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. The community of Aston, which I represent, exists on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin nation, the outer eastern suburbs of Naarm/Melbourne—a place I have called home for the past 37 years. I acknowledge and pay my respects to their peoples past, present and emerging. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

I came to live in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne because three of my older sisters had done the same, so naturally, when it was my time to move out of home from my home town of Echuca, this is where I gravitated to, because connection to family is so important. I'm a proud mum to my 24-year-old son, Clancy, and my 21-year-old daughter, Lily, and a proud great-aunty to 19-year-old Jamilah, who came into my care five years ago at the age of 14, when her beautiful mum, my niece Melanie, tragically died from a brain aneurysm at the age of 42. This sudden devastation occurred in Tasmania not long after the start of the COVID lockdowns in 2020. Having Jamilah join Clancy, Lily and me in our home was something I never questioned, as she needed connection to her mother's family.

Being re-elected as the member for Aston was an enormous honour—one that was so humbling. It was also akin to being welcomed back to a family of sorts—in fact, a couple of families. There is the family of the electorate of Aston, such a vibrant, multicultural community—one where I have gained all kinds of siblings and maybe a few different mums, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. Then there's my family of colleagues in Canberra—the MPs and senators I have come to know and respect, and their staff members too. It's good to be back in the big house, and that's an enormous honour as well.

Having run three elections in three years has been a lot of fun—well, some of the time. In 2022, when I ran against the former member for Aston, Alan Tudge, it was a steep learning curve for me as a first-time Labor candidate. At that time, in 2022, Aston had been Liberal since 1990, and my fledgling campaign for Aston was extremely grassroots. I shared a campaign office with two other first-time Labor candidates: the now current member for Deakin, Matt Gregg, as well as the Labor candidate for Menzies at that time. I funded a lot of that campaign myself, with financial help from the wonderful ASU, my union; local ALP branch members; my friends; and many true believers. I had zero delusions of grandeur, let alone any delusions of winning Aston in 2022, but I was amazed, as were many of my friends and colleagues, by a swing of 7.3 per cent to Labor in Aston in 2022—incredible. Having Labor win the whole federal election in 2022 was brilliant, and that was the best win overall.

But I wondered about the victor in Aston that year and if he'd hang around for a full term. I wondered, in fact, why he'd ever run at all in Aston in that election, quite frankly. The former member for Aston's resignation from office followed nine months later, thus necessitating a by-election in April of 2023. I then had to gear up for an election campaign again, not even a year after the last one. This time was vastly different, as the nation's media was focused solely on this one federal electorate, once the safest Liberal seat in the whole country. How would it all turn out? 'Could you win, Mary? No pressure!' And, against all odds, that is what happened, the first time a sitting government had won an opposition seat in a by-election in 103 years—such an historic political event.

It was a bruiser of a campaign; I'm not going to lie. There were sniping comments and barbs from my opponent's volunteers. Some of them were yelling right in my face as I was speaking to voters at prepoll, but they were nothing I couldn't handle. My volunteers and supporters were fantastic. They were always there for me at all of the street stalls and early morning train station visits, just as they were in 2022. They were handing out flyers for me on prepoll and by-election day too. I will never forget that rousing reception I walked into at Boronia Bowls Club on the night of the by-election. It was electric and so overwhelming. It is safe to say my face said it all that night. I had not expected to win at all, and I was so overwhelmed and excited as I made my victory speech in front of all the nation's media and the crowd at the Boronia Bowls Club.

To go through another federal election campaign as the incumbent this time was a totally different experience again—another campaign, another Liberal opponent. This one was an entirely different beast—I'm talking about the campaign, not my opponent, of course. The opposition had chosen their candidate well ahead of time, and he'd been out and about very early. He and his people were flagrantly telling story after ludicrous story about me personally, about our government and about his own past, including exactly where he was from—that is, born and raised—and the location of the school where he was a 'local teacher'. He even changed his first name to try and hide certain facts about himself as the failed Liberal candidate for Bruce in 2013 and the failed Liberal candidate for Holt in 2007.

On day 1 of prepoll 2025, when we were at a booth, my two volunteers and I noticed a stark difference in both the by-election and 2022 election prepoll kick-offs. The number of Liberal Party volunteers not only outnumbered us; they far exceeded what's considered normal by the standards of past elections. This new guard weren't familiar with the etiquette of ordinary how-to-vote vollies of all persuasions; they were mean and they were coordinated in their meanness and their moves. I would move to a different area and then be shadowed by one or more of them or my volunteers would be. They would also loudly sing strange chants at the largely befuddled voters lined up and jiggle their candidate's corflutes at people walking in. The candidate himself would try to pick a fight with me or another of the candidates and then film what he hoped would be some kind of altercation with one of his young male volunteers. He accused one woman, an independent candidate from another electorate, of yelling when she clearly was not yelling at all. It was all very weird, and I honestly couldn't understand how he thought this behaviour would win him votes.

In the lead-up too, all over the electorate I had my corflute signs pulled down again and again and again. I'd put them back up, and they'd get pulled down again, while his corflutes—and he had so many of them—stayed put. Then the nasty, blatantly sexist and factually wrong corflutes and large banners about me went up all around the electorate. The Liberal Party denied having anything to do with them; however, I witnessed their volunteers pack down these corflutes at the conclusion of voting on prepoll.

A huge amount of money was spent in Aston by my opponent and those that backed him, but, once again, my volunteers and I stayed strong. For months we had been focused on the people of Aston through doorknocks, phone calls and regular visits to shopping centres, coffee shops and the like, and the response we received was incredibly positive towards me as their federal member and towards the Prime Minister and our federal Labor government about what we had achieved already in the three years in office and what I had delivered as their new member for Aston for the past two years.

The Bayswater urgent care clinic, in particular, was a huge winner for our community of Aston. People in Aston loved it, and, if they hadn't heard about it, they loved learning about it. Cheaper medicines; 60-day scripts; the tripling of the Medicare incentives for GPs, making it easier to access bulk-billing; and the automatic $300 energy bill relief for 2024-25, which was extended for another $150 to the end of 2025—these were the things that truly helped people and truly mattered to people.

During the 2025 federal election campaign, I was supported by an incredible team of wonderful and loyal volunteers, staff members and friends who once again rallied for me to be the member for Aston. They helped me by knocking on 20,000 doors, making 14,000 phone calls and letterboxing tens of thousands of dwellings within Aston. I would especially like to thank the following: Isabel Machuca, Cael McFarlane, Katie and Leiah, Pat and Ken Rivett, Lance Cadman, James Gan, Jacqui Cherry, Sally Larwood, Pat Kelly, Alison Fitch, Paul Sparks, Darcy Truin, Jesse Williams and Ashley Jakowitz. And to my staff—Russell, Hannah, Mannie, Divya, Shauna, Sunny, Chunying, Jacob, and Mary French—and former staffer Richard: thank you all too. Thank you so much to my state Labor colleagues: the member for Bayswater, Jackson Taylor MP, and the member for Monbulk, Daniela De Martino MP, as well as Michael Galea MLC and all of their wonderful staff. To one of my dearest friends of many, many years and now senator for Victoria the Hon. Lisa Darmanin: thank you for your continued support and friendship over the years and also during the times I ran as the Labor candidate in Aston. You've been at all three of my campaign launches and have championed me all the way. I cannot thank you enough, Lisa. Thank you also to the senator's amazing staff for assisting me and my team throughout the last year. It's been incredible getting to know you all. To Senator Jess Walsh: thank you for all your assistance with doorknocking and for your support and friendship during my election campaign as well.

Thanks also must go to those ministers, assistant ministers and senators who came to visit my electorate of Aston during the last term, some of whom came to visit during my re-election campaign too: Senator Penny Wong; Senator Katy Gallagher; the member for Chifley, Ed Husic; the member for Isaacs, Mark Dreyfus; Minister Clare O'Neil; Assistant Minister Ged Kearney; Minister Catherine King; Minister Kristy McBain; Minister Matt Keogh; Minister Tony Burke; Minister Anika Wells; Minister Amanda Rishworth; Minister Anne Aly; Minister Andrew Giles and, of course, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Having you all visit Aston was most welcomed by me and our community of Aston. Thank you to all the wonderful people of Aston who came out to support me and to re-elect me. As your MP in federal parliament, I am here to listen to you, learn from you and advocate for you to the best of my ability. Thank you for putting your trust in me.

I'd also like to thank my wonderful family. Clancy, who's here today for me, thank you for being here. Thank you to my wonderful partner, Anthony, and to Lily, my daughter and Jamilah, my great-niece.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Mascarenhas ): Thank you to the member for Aston. Clancy, it's great to have you here today.

Mr RAE (Hawke—Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) (11:43): I'm absolutely honoured to rise here as the re-elected member for Hawke and as the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors. I'd like to start by thanking the people of Hawke—from Sunbury and Diggers Rest to Melton, Hillside, Ballan and Bacchus Marsh and from across parts of Hume, Melton, Moorabool, Brimbank and Wyndham—for putting your trust in me to fight for our community. I will continue working hard every day to serve you.

This election was a historic win for the Labor Party and for our Labor movement. I want to pay tribute to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese; the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles; ALP National Secretary Paul Erickson and ALP National Assistant Secretary Jen Light for their extraordinary leadership. I also want to thank the Victorian Labor team, led by Steve Staikos and Jett Fogarty, who delivered an incredible result in Victoria and showed once again the strength of our Victorian movement.

Can I welcome and congratulate the new members of the Labor caucus from Victoria—so many friends amongst them: Alice Jordan-Baird in Gorton; Basem Abdo in Calwell; Matt Gregg in Deakin; Gabriel Ng in Menzies; Sarah Witty in Melbourne; Jo Briskey—this legend here—in Maribyrnong; as well as the former member for Higgins, and now senator, Michelle Ananda-Rajah. Each and every single one of these people is working extremely hard every day for their community—here in the federal parliament and at home. I am proud and honoured to work alongside you.

Australians went to the polls on 3 May asking for real cost-of-living relief. They were given a choice between a government delivering lower taxes, lower inflation and higher wages, and an opposition obsessed with waste, who promised to legislate higher taxes for every Australian taxpayer. The scale of the Albanese Labor government's victory and our mandate shouldn't be surprising. We listened to Australians, we made a promise to deliver on the things that matter to them and we haven't wasted a single moment getting on with the job.

From 1 October this year, first homebuyers will be able to purchase with a five per cent deposit without paying lenders mortgage insurance. This was brought forward so that more Australian families can get the keys to their first place sooner. That's practical help for millions of families across Australia, including in my electorate of Hawke. We passed legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent, wiping billions from the balances of around three million Australians, and lifting the minimum repayment threshold—fairness for the graduates and apprentices who keep our economy moving. From 1 July we extended energy bill relief with an extra $150 off household power bills in the second half of this year, helping families while inflation continues to moderate.

We've backed this with investment in skills. Fee-free TAFE is becoming a permanent feature of our training system, building a pipeline of workers in priority areas like construction, clean energy and care. That's critically important to me in my role as Minister for Aged Care and Seniors. We've made medicines cheaper with 60-day prescriptions, and now we're capping scripts so that Australians will pay no more than $25 under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Labor's free TAFE program—just another thing the opposition threatened to gut—delivers training for our next generation of workers, allowing young people to access the qualifications they need at no cost.

My home, Hawke, is one of the fastest-growing parts of the country, and it's where I'm proud to be raising my family. People move west for affordability, for community and for opportunity. Our responsibility to them is to make sure that services keep pace with their ambition. I was proud to make commitments throughout that campaign that I know will make a difference to families in my community. This included $1 billion to upgrade the Western Freeway, and we backed in the electrification of the Melton line—both of which my community has campaigned hard for.

Upgrades to Sunshine station are also essential for airport rail to become a reality and to deliver faster travel for commuters from the west. We'll build the diamond interchange at Calder Park Drive to finally fix one of the region's most dangerous and congested pinch points. We promise to deliver the Bacchus Marsh indoor pool, which I know many families—including my own—are excited about. These are real investments that cut travel time, improve safety and connect people to their jobs.

As the newly appointed Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, my priority is to deliver the historic reforms to our aged-care sector that will give older Australians the safe, dignified and high-quality care that they have always deserved but which a system neglected for a decade was failing to provide. We're hard at work preparing for the transition to the new Aged Care Act on 1 November, which will put the rights of older people first and make our aged-care system more sustainable for generations to come. The Support at Home program will also kick in to replace the old home-care packages program, giving people higher levels of care so that they can stay in the comfort of their own homes and communities for longer.

We've already delivered historic pay rises for aged-care workers, because valuing care means valuing our dedicated, hardworking, highly qualified and passionate carers and nurses who work around the clock to care for our loved ones.

Locally, aged care matters. In a community where parents are caring for their own parents while raising kids and paying mortgages, reliable home support, properly staffed residential services and fair worker pay are not abstract policies; they help local families every single day. We're strengthening Medicare and investing in bulk-billing, primary care and the urgent care network so that people can get help earlier and stay out of hospital. I'm proud to say that the Medicare urgent care clinics are now operating in Melton and Sunbury, providing free, extended-hours, walk-in care for urgent but non-life-threatening needs, taking pressure off emergency departments and saving families time and money.

Doorknocking across Hawke through the election, I met dozens of families who have used these services, whether it's for sick kids or injuries on the footy field. In fact, my own family has seen the inside of the urgent care centre pretty regularly, and we're very grateful for the care and support that the nurses and doctors there continue to provide. Labor governments will always protect and strengthen Medicare, and I'm proud to see firsthand the differences that these policies make to families in my community.

People in Hawke are often young first home buyers looking to settle down close to essential services. Homes for Australia is the centrepiece of the Albanese Labor government's plan to cut costs and give Australians a leg up. Already Labor's expanded Home Guarantee Scheme is helping first home buyers into a home of their own, with a five per cent deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance. We've delivered a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth rent assistance, the biggest back-to-back increases in more than 30 years. We've started the biggest housing build in Australia's history, with an ambitious plan to build 1.2 million homes over the next five years, and we're delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes for the Australians that need them most. Our promise and our plan is simple: more supply, the right infrastructure and practical help to get first home buyers into the market.

The election result in Hawke was a massive team effort. We knocked on thousands of doors and made thousands of phone calls to the community. To our Hawke Labor branches and branch members: you are the foundation of everything that we do. To Daryl Baker, Derrick Simpson, Chris Wells and the whole team at the Bacchus Marsh branch: thank you for putting in the work and turning up every day against incredibly difficult opponents. To Geoff Dawson, Ravinder Kaur, Nathan Miles, Nat Davies, Bob and Jean Rau, Jasmeen Kaur, Rhonda Edmonds, Barry Agg, Jarrod Bell, Ross van Brink, Anthony Rhodes, Andrew Jeynes, and Kylie Spencer: thank you for your hard work on the ground. To the Ballarat East branch and all the legends in Ballan: I'm incredibly grateful for your hard work. To Jesse, Amy, Shammi, Josh and everyone from Josh Bull's office: thank you for your support. Thanks also to Michaela Settle and Steve McGhie for your support and friendship throughout the campaign. To our legendary field team: Nordin Hammouche, Gabi Saffer, Erin Kelly, Oscar Dobson, Ryan Drage, Dennis Southon, Bella Conroy, Tal Pelach and the crew at ACT Young Labor: thank you for your doorknocks, your phone calls, your hours spent on prepoll and the respect that you afforded to my people across our community.

Thank you to Millie Page and Henry Fox, who led the campaign efforts with humour and determination—two extraordinary young people who will continue to make such a profound impact on our community and our country moving forward. To my office manager, Di McAuliffe, and our electorate office staff: thank you for keeping everything steady, organised and running smoothly behind the scenes. To Avtar, Gurdashan and the community at Khalsa Shaouni: thank you for your friendship, your faith and your overwhelming support. To my friend Sam Lynch and the mighty Transport Workers Union—my union—thank you for being there every step of the way. And to the RTBU, the AMWU, the HSU and HACSU: thank you for standing up for working people and for standing with us through this campaign. To the Victorian Trades Hall: thanks for backing us and for fuelling this campaign with your strength and your solidarity.

To my mum, Penny, and to my partner, Zoe, and our kids Hunny, Banjo and Mac: thank you for keeping me grounded. I couldn't do any of this without your extraordinary love and your support, and I love you all so very much.

Serving the people of Hawke over the past three years has truly been the greatest privilege of my professional life. Earning your support and your trust to represent our community for another three years continues to be the honour of my professional life. My job in this place is to make sure that prosperity and the opportunity of our nation reaches every street across Hawke. That means safer and quicker commutes, more local training for the jobs that are hiring, a stronger Medicare and cheaper medicines, and care that treats every Australian with dignity. There's a big job ahead of us but, as your local member, that is exactly what I'll be fighting to deliver.

Mr ROB MITCHELL (McEwen) (11:55): On 3 May this year I was given the great honour of being returned to this place by the people of McEwen. And as I've said before, in every one of these addresses, I pledge to work day and night to fulfil my commitments to them. I pledge to do all that's within my power and the power of this government to make our lives better. I will always bring their interests to this place and give our communities a seat at the table. It's a great privilege and honour to have this job. In Canberra we each speak with the voice of more than 100,000 people, and we act in their interests. We have spent the past three years in government listening hard and laying the foundations for our nation for the next three years. We see those foundations everywhere in McEwen.

In May 2022 Australia voted for change, after nine years of stagnation, rorts, rip-offs and scandals under those opposite. I'm proud to report that this change has been seen across our towns and our communities in McEwen. Over the past three years we saw essential programs expand their reach in the communities, be that in health, education, cost-of-living support or, importantly, roads and infrastructure. I point that out because one of biggest challenges we face is the road infrastructure in our communities. Under the coalition, our state, which is 25 per cent of Australia's population, received only seven per cent of infrastructure spending. I'm glad to report that Victoria is now receiving the funding it deserves to maintain and develop our state road network, and our communities see these benefits happening.

In the past three years there has been a lot of change and growth in McEwen. We have seen a series of major grants. We secured $1 million to expand the Diamond Creek Mens Shed. We'll deliver the space to expand their operations, supporting the mental and physical wellbeing of men in our community. It's a success measured in mateship, in conversations that would have gone unheard. It's also a chance to talk about their health and wellbeing and a great opportunity for them to have those conversations comfortably and talk about things that we don't normally like to talk about. But it's important that we do that, and it removes the isolation for many people in our towns.

In 2022 we secured disaster relief funding after the Darraweit Guim floods. The government supported locals through this time as they dealt with change and with damage to their homes and to their lives. We invested $7.1 million for the Johnson Road estate in Mernda through our housing support fund to help the city of Whittlesea to meet the growing residential demand. We are delivering on our major commitments, which is something that has been dear to me from day one: to always make sure I deliver what I promise. We secured $900 million for Camerons Lane Interchange and the Beveridge Intermodal Precinct, and I'm pleased to see that the planning is well underway with the state government delivering this project.

We are commencing stage 2 of the Macedon Ranges Sports Precinct, in cooperation with Macedon Ranges Shire. And works are well underway with the $1.5 million investment in the Diamond Creek Pool upgrade. I just spoke to the mayor upstairs, and we're getting reading for a fantastic summer. There's also the Hilltop splash park in Mernda, which is something we've promised: somewhere that's free where families can take kids on hot days and have a great bit of fun. When we announced this we partnered with the state government and Whittlesea Council to develop the $3 million park, with new swings and nature rides and other great things for families to do, close to home—and importantly, as I said, at a time when dollars are tight, it's free. This is something I think will be sensational when it's delivered around October.

We are also sealing Old Sydney Road in Beveridge. Beveridge is an area that has struggled, with one entrance in and one entrance out. When you've got primary schools on both sides of the freeway, sometimes it can take 45 minutes to travel those three kays from one school to the other. This gives a second exit out, which will be great for growing communities but also in times of need. We are duplicating Donnybrook Road at Kalkallo, from around Cloverton onto the freeway; adding a new bridge; removing the roundabout; and putting traffic lights in. Again, having governments working together is so important, and we're partnered with the state government in that to make the lives of so many people so much better. Then there are the upgrades at Greenhill Reserve in Wallan and the works at Wellington Street and Darraweit Road—that's just only naming a few of the many different road projects that we've been doing across our communities.

There's funding of $90 million for Watson Street ramps to the Hume Highway at Wallan, with works kicking off later this year. This is a long-awaited project, a project that was neglected under the previous government. But as soon as we got into government we started the move to get funding in place for planning, and now we see it happening. I know there are going to be many people giving a sigh of relief when the works start. Yan Yean Road stage 2 is now well progressed towards commencement. These are things that need to be done in growing communities to help people get around and to make it easier and a lot safer to get to and from work. We can see that from the recently completed Bridge Inn Road upgrades. Projects like these are game changers; they make our lives safer and easier while delivering important economic outcomes for communities.

In May 2022, the Australian people voted for change. In May 2025, the Australian people voted for positivity and growth. They voted for Australian values: fairness, aspiration, opportunity for all—the values that drive our Labor government. However, nothing good comes easy, and any reflection on my journey back to this place would be incomplete without the story of the last election. We know that every election is tough. When you're in one of the seats most targeted by the opposition, you know it gets even tougher. But we prevailed. We prevailed in a situation where we had these blow-in candidates come in with deep, deep pockets, spending a lot of money and making promises they could never keep. McEwen, for some reason, seems to be a magnet for cashed-up, parachuted candidates. It's a tradition with the Liberal Party. For better or worse, though, our local communities have not forgotten the nine years of squibbed promises and failure to deliver by those opposite. At this election, it was hard to forget them.

One thing that did stand out for me at this election was the abundance of volunteers in blue T-shirts, especially at pre-poll and on election day. But these blue T-shirts weren't being worn by diehard, true believers of the Liberal Party. No, sadly for democracy, those people are almost extinct. They were being worn by members of a third party group trying to use their resources to change the outcome of a democratic election—and I'm not talking about locals here. These were people that were bussed in to do their work for the party they hoped would deliver a quid pro quo. The question has to be asked, 'What did the Liberal Party promise these people to make them come out in such an aggressive, bullying manner?' As in many other places across the nation, the Exclusive Brethren descended on the towns of Gisborne and Wandong for pre-poll. Surprisingly enough, they didn't do the Liberal candidate any favours. With at least 20 of these so-called volunteers there on any given day, they turned the task of people choosing to exercise their democratic right at a pre-poll into a gauntlet to be run, with in-your-face, pushy behaviour and by deliberately blocking people trying to get in. The feedback we received from locals was they did not appreciate being accosted as they made their way into the polling place just to have their say. The presence of the Brethren didn't end at the pre-poll. On election day it was worse, with many of our volunteers subjected to the aggressive methods of these thugs as they harassed people while handing out for the Liberal Party. It's bad enough with Liberals not being honest, but these parasites were openly and deliberately lying to people.

One thing that really struck me was at the pre-poll we had a young female, a first-time voter still in her school uniform. By the time she got to the front of the election queue, she was crying because she had all these people just surrounding her and badgering her all the way through. Luckily, we had Senator Jana Stewart with us. Senator Stewart was very forthright with the Liberal Party in explaining that that was not on. We can't have people who are coming to vote for the first time being forced to tears as they try to exercise their right. It's just not on.

As a member of parliament, I find it concerning that the use of groups such as the Brethren can have a direct impact on the integrity of our democratic process. These groups, with their insular and highly controlled nature, can be used to manipulate the political process in ways that are not transparent or representative of the broader electorate. I would absolutely recommend that this matter be looked into by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters and any other authority which has jurisdiction on election interference by these so-called third parties. Predictably, and thankfully, the people of McEwen saw straight through them.

I've always been proud to be a local living and working in the electorate that I get to represent. It's something that I think is important. You make sure that you're down at the shops like everyone else, you drive the same roads, your kids go to the same school—all these things are just so important to what we do. What the Liberals had to offer was a deceitful candidate who was prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars on advertising but, predictably, failed to listen to the needs of our communities or understand them, because he wasn't one of us. We were proud to fend off the multi-failed blow-in, and we had the confidence of the people in our prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Our communities delivered a swing to the ALP in this election, which is so important. It showed the faith and the trust they have in us to deliver what we said we will do. I think that was borne out right across the electorate. That was part of my journey to get back here, and now there is a lot of work to do.

I look at the future of our nation, and it looks bright. It's a privilege to be in the largest ALP caucus since Federation. I just joked about the fact that, at the first caucus meeting, it was so unusual to find that there weren't enough chairs. Luckily, there was a room down the other end that we could borrow some from because that was fairly empty. In this term, our government is committed to doing a range of things. We're continuing to provide cost-of-living assistance with energy bill relief for households and small businesses, tax cuts for every taxpayer and cheaper medicines. We're committed to a stronger Medicare, in which nine out of 10 GP visits will be bulk-billed by the end of the decade, and an expanded network of urgent care clinics, including the one in Diamond Creek, to take pressure off our hospital emergency departments. We know that Northern Hospital Epping has the busiest emergency department in Australia. The more that we can do to keep people from clogging up that system, the better.

We're slashing the prices of PBS listed medicines and boosting funding for women's health, which is so important. I want to thank Assistant Minister Ged Kearney, who came out and held a women's health forum with me. It was really enlightening to sit there and listen to a great bunch of locals who came and talked about women's health issues and the problems they face. I was pleased that they allowed me to stay in the room to listen to it. It really showed what has been neglected for a long time. It's important to have a direct focus on women's health, like we do with men's health through our special envoy for men's health, the member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi. These things are important to make sure that the focus is strong and consistent and that we deliver results.

One of the other things that we're proud of in one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation—we're always battling up there in the top couple—is getting more people into homes through the five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers. We're committed to building 100,000 homes exclusively for first home buyers, expanding the Help to Buy scheme and providing incentives of $10,000 for building apprentices to boost the workforce and tackle the critical workforce shortage we have.

We're ensuring education is available and affordable by making a further 20 per cent cut to student debt, raising the income threshold and capping the indexation rate. That ensures that HELP debts cannot grow faster than wages. It's so important for young people wanting to buy their first home. In addition, we're making fee-free TAFE a key feature of our national vocational education and training system. This will come by funding 100,000 fee-free TAFE places a year from 2027 and fully funding public schools to make sure no child gets left behind. We are helping families with children in early education get ahead by scrapping the childcare activity test and replacing it with a three-day guarantee for subsidised care each week, as well as building 160 new childcare centres over four years.

We are delivering cleaner, cheaper renewable energy, and it's so important for the future of our nation that we do this and get to net zero. And you've got to ask a question: if you just got the biggest thumping in your life against a side that is supporting net zero, why the hell would you go and scrap it? It makes no sense, but that's okay; we're not going to give them any tips. I think the Liberal and National parties can deal with their own shrinking base themselves. But we are delivering this cheaper, cleaner energy because it's so important. We're delivering a 30 per cent discount on home batteries to make better use of solar panels and permanently cut power bills.

This, the vision of Labor, is clear. We are the party of growth, and growth is a big factor at home too. We sit in Melbourne's northern growth corridor, smack bang in the middle, and we need to be ahead of the curve. We know every day the effects of what the Liberal government neglected over nine years. Like other periurban regions across the nation, our communities have a shifting set of needs. What we need from government today is different from what we needed 20 years ago, and I guarantee it's different to what we'll need in 20 years time. But now we're not just catching up; we're building for the future. Our record investment is more than just bitumen and bridges; it's about delivering opportunities safely and responsibly to our communities. We are delivering the change the communities in McEwen need. Communities have waited for far too long for government to see them and understand their needs.

Just in closing, as is traditional and to make sure I get home safely and get that support, I want to talk about the supporters and the help that we got from all those people who contributed to the win in McEwen. I may get the chocolates of being here and delivering this speech, but I know that, without the many, many thousands of people who get in behind us, it doesn't happen, and it's so important that we acknowledge some of those. I know I'm going to miss people, and I apologise for that. But I want to thank my team that I have in my office. We are a great collective of people that work with one goal, and that's to service our community. Thank you to Adam, Cath, Ged, Gareth, Jeni, Sasha, Ella, Gaweshi, Kate—who came out from UK Labour to help and be part of it, and an absolute legend she was—Spiro, Dylan and Carmel—who is just a great sounding board for advice. Thank you to Paul Erickson, Jen Light, Jett Fogarty and Gabriella Dawson. What a team they are! I thank the unions: the TWU, of which I've been proud to be a member for 25 years, and the RTBU, who offered great support and help in sounding out with our multicultural communities.

Thank you to Ged for doing all the coordinating—the 215 volunteers, the 282 shifts at prepolls and the 70 scrutineers that it takes to do these things. I want to also give special thanks to a man who I openly call my brother, Avtar, and to Diego, Casey, Jan Mapleston, Margo Clarke, John Benson, John Frearson and Terry Larkins, who's been the chair of our FEA for a long, long time and is the Yoda of our communities. He is an amazing person. I thank my mate Simon Furey, Kobe Hay, Hailey Emmins, Jarrod Lappin, Kerry Pastras, the HACSU volunteers and all the branch members and supporters in our community that just deliver these things. They make you want to get up in the morning and do your best. They're just great people.

I thank local supporters including Graeme Newman from the Diamond Creek Men's Shed; Michelle Kneale from Northern Pride Netball Association, an amazing lady; Michelle at Romsey Neighbourhood House, who does a fantastic, champion job; and a man who I would say, in all honesty, is one of the greatest human beings I've ever met in my life, and that's Jeremy Scrivens from Love in Action. He is an amazing human. He's going through a rough time, but we're backing him. I thank Neal Langborne from the Wallan Football Netball Club, a great mate and someone who's always there to tell you, right or wrong, what you're doing and do it in a forthright way. I really appreciate that.

To the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Trade and Tourism and Special Minister of State, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government—I think Catherine King has almost got her own place out there, she's been out so often—the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Minister for Sport and the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care: thank you for your support and being part of this special time we had. And a special shout-out goes to Senator Jana Stewart, who was an absolute rock during the prepolling. To former minister Stephen Conroy—a great mate, a great sounding board—for the frank and fearless bits of advice you get from him. To Tess Baster and, of course, to my family: Lisa and the two greatest hander-outerers on prepoll day, my grandkids, Ava and Lacey. They did a wonderful job, keeping tally of who took the pamphlets and who didn't. It was great to have both of them out there. It really warms your heart to see, and it was just great to have those two kids there. And, of course, thank you to Hawker Britton, who just never let us down. With that, as I said, I'm very thankful for this opportunity again to be here, and I won't waste a day.

Ms COKER (Corangamite) (12:15): I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging, and to the First Nations people of my region, the Wadawurrung.

It is my great honour to stand here as the elected representative for Corangamite for the third time. I thank the people of my region for placing their faith in me. That trust I carry with me every single day. It drives me to work hard on behalf of my communities—communities that are diverse, thriving and resilient. From the Surf Coast to the Bellarine, from Geelong to Armstrong Creek, my region is growing rapidly. We are one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation and, while we have seen much change, our character remains—the character shaped in the swell of Bells Beach; forged in the old factories of Grovedale, Marshall, and Moolap; and nurtured by the farms and schools stretching from Torquay through to Queenscliff. This is who we are.

We are resilient, caring, compassionate and creative. We love our unique natural environment: the sharp red cliffs of Jan Juc, the sweeping grasslands of the Bellarine, and the rolling hinterland yellow gums that stretch from Armstrong Creek to Point Addis. Together we share a commitment to protecting our unique natural environment and our ocean. We look out for one another and, like all Australians, we value fairness. Together, we are determined to make a positive difference.

On 3 May my communities made their priorities heard for the future. They voted for a government that will continue to tackle cost-of-living pressures, act decisively on climate change, deliver world-class services in health and in education, and ensure that we are a nation where everyone gets a fair go. In Corangamite these issues were at the heart of every conversation I had. These issues are grounded in lived realities. Families told me how the cheaper childcare subsidies have changed their lives. Pensioners shared their enthusiasm for our cheaper medicines policy. Young people spoke to me on the prepoll line about how our cuts to student debt will mean they get ahead. Women spoke of Labor's focus on gender equity and our strong women's health policy that reduces costs for essential medications. Local businesses in Waurn Ponds and Drysdale talked about how free TAFE is opening the doors of opportunity for workers to pursue new career paths and about our investment in the local infrastructure their communities need and deserve.

Labor's first term of government and our recent election campaign offered practical, compassionate, forward-thinking policies that deliver for Australians—from strengthening Medicare and making free TAFE permanent, to cutting student debt and investing in housing, emissions reduction and energy bill relief. We put forward a plan that resonated with voters because it responded to Australians' concerns and aspirations. Of course, there are people in my electorate of Corangamite who did not vote for me. My commitment is clear: I will always be there for you, because that is what matters most to your representative. It is the foundation on which I will fight every day in this place.

But, as every member in this place knows, taking on that fight is not possible in isolation. Behind every public moment there's a private foundation—our families. To my husband, Hugh; my daughters, Issy and Lily; my siblings, Marty, Stephen and Janet; and my mum Fran: thank you. You've been with me throughout my journey as a quirky, inquisitive kid who became a teacher, a journalist, a business owner, a councillor, a Surf Coast mayor, a candidate for state parliament and as your member for Corangamite. Through wins and losses, through long days and even longer nights, you've kept me grounded. You have believed in me and backed me in with sound advice and strong principles of compassion, inclusion and respect for others. I could not stand here without you.

I also want to take a moment to sincerely thank every person who participated in the election. Whether you voted, cooked snags at a local fundraiser, handed out how-to-vote cards or worked tirelessly for the Australian Electoral Commission, your efforts make our democratic process possible. Our democracy rests on those quiet acts of service, those hours volunteered and those ballots carefully counted late into the night.

But I cannot stand here today without addressing the conduct of the election campaign, particularly in my electorate. While elections should be a celebration of our democracy, too often this one felt like a contest of intimidation. At prepoll voting centres in Torquay and Drysdale, groups of up to 10 to 12 volunteers linked to the Exclusive Brethren and supporting the Liberal Party encircled me—literally. They stood in a diamond formation, blocking me from speaking to voters. Every step I took was mirrored by them. At times, it was an ugly, coordinated performance. This experience wasn't mine alone. Candidates from the Greens, Legalise Cannabis and an Independent all came forward with similar stories shared publicly on ABC 774. I want to thank the ABC for enabling the discussion and bringing attention to this unacceptable behaviour. We need frank and fearless media to provide unbiased and robust reporting. I must say: why was the Liberal Party backed by the Exclusive Brethren in such numbers? What was offered in return? Australians have the right to know, and they have the right to vote without being harassed.

My communities also endured a signage war. The signage war that played out at Corangamite was relentless. Signs were removed and vandalised. Illegal signs were erected and deliberately replaced within hours. These were dirty tricks. They were attacks on democracy and on integrity. Beyond integrity, there was an environmental question too. Thousands of plastic corflutes and wraparound bunting are now destined for landfill. It is wasteful, it is costly, and it undermines the credibility of politics when communities see our streets turned into advertising battlegrounds.

It's time to modernise the way we conduct elections. We must address the overuse of plastic corflutes and bunting and seriously consider these environmental and democratic costs. I also believe we need to look at the number of volunteers who stand for a party or a representative. This needs to be considered. We do not need 12 people or 20 people to be handing out for one candidate. I wholeheartedly encourage the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to include these issues in its inquiry into the 2025 election. Our democracy is robust, but it's not unbreakable. It must be protected.

That's why I've invested time and energy into strengthening civic education across my electorate. For the past three years, I've led a democracy-in-schools program, visiting schools and working with students to better understand how our system works. As a former teacher, I love going into schools, and my work is inspired by our Speaker, whom I congratulate on his reappointment. His leadership and promotion of civic engagement and the initiative of the National Youth Parliament is exceptional. He knows as I do that rebuilding trust in our democratic institutions starts with education. Too many Australians feel disconnected from the mechanisms that govern their lives. When young people feel politics is a separate entity to them, irrelevant from their daily lives, when misinformation spreads faster than facts and when cynicism replaces trust and respect, that is when democracy falters.

I have seen firsthand the difference that civics education can make. When a student at Armstrong Creek explains the meaning of preferential voting to their peers, when a group of year 12s in Drysdale debate whether the voting age should be lowered, or when students grasp that numbers in the chamber matter, that their vote matters—these lightbulb moments show that democracy is not static; it is dynamic, it is alive, it is contested, and it must be strengthened. Teachers have told me that students come away from these sessions with a changed perspective and a sense that politics is not something that happens 'up there', here in Canberra, but is something they can influence. They do have power. This is how trust can be rebuilt.

Trust must also be restored in one of our most important social programs, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The NDIS changes lives. It is a Labor reform. And it has given people with disability choice, control and dignity. But in recent years that trust has been shaken. Our government is absolutely committed to restoring that trust and to ensuring that the scheme delivers on its promise to Australians with disability and their families. This is a monumental task, but it is one that, together with the disability community, our government is committed to tackling. That's why I'm deeply honoured to have been reappointed chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS. I take this responsibility seriously. Along with my friend and colleague Senator Jenny McAllister, the Minister for the NDIS, and Minister Mark Butler, I'm committed to working alongside my committee to help rebuild the confidence of participants and their families in the scheme. Like Medicare and superannuation, the NDIS is a symbol of what we can achieve when we prioritise fairness, dignity and opportunity for all. It represents the very best of who we are as Australians.

If there is one thing that comes up again and again across my electorate it is the opportunity to get a good job and to learn new skills. That's why free TAFE has been an absolute game changer. I have met students who never thought tertiary education was for them, young people who left school early, parents retraining after time at home with kids, and workers who've lost jobs in old industries. Free TAFE opens doors. It is a pathway into areas we desperately need workers in, like nursing, aged care, disability support, early childhood education, clean energy, construction and advanced manufacturing. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the Minister for Skills and Training, who is driving reform in this space.

In my region the clean energy transition is not an abstract debate. It represents jobs being created in wind and solar, in building new transmission and in advanced manufacturing that underpins it all. Local apprentices and workers are wiring solar panels, laying transmission lines, installing subsidised batteries in homes and businesses, and welding the infrastructure that will power our future. When people in Corangamite look ahead they can see a future of secure, well-paid jobs. That is what the Albanese Labor government is determined to deliver.

And this term of government is about delivery. We have already cut student debt by 20 per cent for university and TAFE graduates; increased the HECS repayment threshold from $56,000 to $67,000, allowing people to earn more before repaying; reduced the cost of medicines on the PBS to $25 from January next year; made free TAFE permanent and nationally accessible; and expanded marine protected areas to more than 50 per cent.

And we're not stopping there. We are undertaking the biggest investment in Medicare since its inception, rolling out more bulk-billing and giving Australians better access to primary care without out-of-pocket costs. We've expanded paid parental leave to 26 weeks by mid next year. And we're including superannuation, because having a child shouldn't come at the expense of a woman's retirement.

Labor is also delivering infrastructure that shapes our communities and sets us up for the future. In my electorate, that means funding Stage Two of the Barwon Heads Road Upgrade, a new Medicare urgent care clinic in Torquay, a Medicare mental health prevention hub also in Torquay, and significant sporting infrastructure in Leopold, Drysdale, Grovedale, Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove. These projects are not just about roads, buildings, football and netball facilities; they're about connection, opportunity and care. They're about creating spaces where young people can thrive, where families can access urgent care and where local communities can come together.

Of course, at the heart of building stronger communities for the future is housing. Young families in Armstrong Creek want the chance to buy their first home close to work and schools. That is why Labor's investment in housing is so critical, and it's why our announcement this week to fast-track the five per cent home deposit scheme is such a game changer for people across my electorate. This is not only an economic reform; it is a social reform that underpins security and dignity for every Australian, and it's part of a broader agenda to build 1.2 million homes in the next five years.

As we build at home, we must also continue to stand up for Australian values on the world stage. I want to acknowledge the work of our foreign minister and the Prime Minister for their measured leadership on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The scenes from Gaza are horrific: children starving, families displaced and hospitals overwhelmed. Our government continues to call for a ceasefire, as well as the release of hostages and the genuine advancement of a two-state solution. Let me be clear: Israel has the right to exist, and Palestinians have a right to statehood. I am proud that Australia has joined our international partners in calling for this to occur. Recognition must come, not as a gesture but as a genuine step towards peace. It is the right thing to do and the fair thing to do, and fairness is at the heart of what we stand for as Australians.

None of the work that we do in this place would be possible without the people who put in the long hours behind the scenes. To our grassroots volunteers, thank you. I would not be here but for your passion and your commitment to Labor values. You know who you are. Your friendships matter so much to me—thank you. I'd like to thank Maddie, Atticus, Lottie and Alfonso for their tireless work. I'd also like to thank Paul Erikson. To the Australian union movement, particularly the Australian Services Union and the United Workers Union—you are the engine room of Labor values. Your fight for fairness inspires us all. I'm deeply grateful to my parliamentary colleagues, who stood with me on the pre-poll line and in the community. To my friend and electoral neighbour, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, thank you for your wisdom, your wise counsel and your support. Together, we share the immense privilege of representing the broader Geelong region. Your support throughout the campaign was invaluable. To Senator Jess Walsh, Senator Lisa Darmanin, Ged Kearney, Andrew Giles, Catherine King, Senator Wong, Brendan O'Connor, Lisa Neville and my state colleagues Alison Marchant, Gayle Tierney and Christine Couzens—thank you. And of course the Prime Minister, who, during a frenetic election campaign, took time to stand with me and my communities—you are an amazing, visionary leader. To my staff—Brenda, Moshi, Ellie, Grace, Nathan, Julian and my Chief of Staff Kylie Rawson—your commitment, compassion, friendship and resilience are unmatched. Whether helping with visa applications, Centrelink issues or local government advocacy, you go above and beyond every day to help constituents in my electorate. It's so important we do that.

Finally, a special acknowledgement to Lee Hubbard, my former Chief of Staff, on his retirement from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Lee's lifelong dedication to the Labor movement is a legacy we all admire.

In closing, Australians faced a clear choice on 3 May—unity or division; optimism or grievance; progress or the politics of the past. They chose unity. They chose courage. They chose a government that will stand with them to build a stronger, fairer and more inclusive future. It's my privilege to help shape that future alongside my communities, one rooted in the values of fairness, decency and hope. Australians have placed their trust in us, and it is our duty, it is my duty, to honour that trust every single day.

Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for Social Services) (12:35): I'm delighted to be able to deliver this address-in-reply to the Governor-General's speech on the opening of the 48th Parliament. It's not my first rodeo; I've been to a few of these. But I have to say this election is a particularly special one because Labor now holds 94 seats out of the 150 in the House of Representatives and 29 out of the 76 Senate spots. So we have 123 representatives across both chambers. Our caucus is now 57 per cent female, cabinet is 52 per cent women and we are a modern, diverse government with more representation of our diverse Australian community than any previous government. That's important because, because of that, we make better decisions. We represent all Australians.

We had a terrific result in the electorate of Sydney thanks to the hard work and commitment of volunteers and supporters. Supporters in their hundreds stood at bus and ferry stops, train stations, light-rail stops and outside markets and shops to let people know about our first-term achievements and to tell them of our plans for our second term. I'm very pleased to say that the federal electorate of Sydney achieved 55.15 per cent of first-preference votes for Labor. That is the highest first-preference vote for Labor in the entire country. And, of course, our two-party preferred vote was also outstanding, at 70.95 per cent of two-party preferred votes.

It doesn't happen without an incredible amount of hard work from party members, and I'd particularly like to mention: Alberto Castillo, Connah, Ann Daly, Vicki Clay, John Dixon, Halcyon Done, Brian Frankham, Jonathan Gilliland, James Godschalk, Michael Hatrick, Shane Healy, David Hetherington, Marco Ho, Susan Kable, Clara Klemski, Nicholas Lin, Tom Loveluck, Zann Maxwell, Wayne Moody, Vanessa Bourke, Michelle Perry, Luke Pratt, Judy Quirk, Linda Scott, Tamira Stevenson and Kate Sullivan. Of course, they are not the only ones who worked very hard during this campaign, but I do need to mention them for their really outstanding effort. I also want to thank Campaign Director Christine Hawkins—an incredible effort from Christine—and Kerry, Will, Nell, Luke and Toni in the office. I want to take this opportunity as well to mention a few of the ministerial staff from my previous portfolio who have moved on: Dan Doran, David McElrea and Rachel Durrant. They're not the only staff who moved on, but each of those had been with me for over a decade. It's hard to say goodbye to people, but they've all gone on to bigger and better things.

During the campaign, I was very pleased to announce several important commitments in my electorate, including $10.2 million to deliver a new harbour pool at World Heritage listed Cockatoo Island/Wareamah, on beautiful Sydney Harbour, west of the harbour bridge. That'll be a great day out for people, who will be able to go there for the cost of a ferry ride and spend the day and swim in our beautiful harbour. There is also a commitment of $27,000 in funding to support eight events to be hosted by the Newtown Synagogue in 2025 to promote community cohesion. That is so important in light of yesterday's revelations about the Iranian government involvement in antisemitic attacks in Sydney. Of course, Newtown Synagogue was one of the places that were attacked during that spate of horrible antisemitic attacks. With Penny Wong, we also made a commitment of $2.6 million to the Museum of Chinese in Australia, located in Haymarket. And, with the Prime Minister, we made an $8.5 million commitment to funding for the Jewish Museum, which, of course, has now moved into the Wentworth electorate. We're also rebuilding the Griffin Theatre in Darlinghurst. This is a much-needed investment of $5 million, an announcement made with Catherine King. I can't wait to see further progress on these very important local commitments.

Voters in Sydney and across the country voted Labor because of the difference that we made in the lives of ordinary Australians: cost-of-living relief for millions and tax cuts for all Australians. In fact, there are 147,000 taxpayers in Sydney, and 123,462 of them received a tax cut. We provided two years of energy bill relief for every household and small business. In the Sydney electorate, 101,373 households received energy rebates, and 75,015 small businesses received rebates as well. My electorate has benefited from our historic increases in Commonwealth rent assistance. We've helped 6,330 households in the Sydney electorate in 2025 with increases to Commonwealth rent assistance, which is particularly important in an electorate like mine, where rents are so expensive.

We funded a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators and aged-care workers, while making sure that childcare centres cap their fees to support affordability and fairness. We are making sure that early childhood education is more affordable for families. Out-of-pocket costs were cut by an average of $7,000 for a family earning $168,000. We introduced 60-day prescriptions and tripled bulk-billing incentives, saving electors in the electorate of Sydney around $9 million so far.

We've wiped $3 billion from student debt for more than three million Australians. In Sydney, more than one in five voters will benefit from that. We are cutting the average student debt by $6,820 and delivering $183.9 million in direct financial relief to 26,972 individuals in my electorate. Our fee-free TAFE funding has been wildly successful, and it's benefited over 3½ thousand students in the Sydney electorate. We now see across the country same job, same pay, which is now law. The gender pay gap is the lowest it's ever been, with women $1,900 a year better off because of that.

We're building 1.2 million new homes in Australia, and we're also making the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in many years. I was just delighted recently to visit a new project in Waterloo which City West Housing is building with the assistance of the state government and the federal government and some assistance from local government as well. How great to see those new homes going into my electorate. We passed landmark legislation to lift federal government funding for public schools, which had been capped at 20 per cent by Malcolm Turnbull when he was prime minister. So much has been done across the board.

I'm always very proud of what we manage to achieve in the environment portfolio as we move towards net zero. In just three years, I approved 83 renewable energy projects, enough to power 10 million homes. That's every home in Australia. Renewables are powering well over 40 per cent of the national grid now, and we're on track to achieve that 82 per cent target by 2030. In recent weeks, about 40,000 households have taken up our support for much cheaper home batteries as well. We invested $550 million to protect threatened species, including Lord Howe Island's phasmid and little mountain palm. Lord Howe Island is a beautiful part of my electorate. We increased recycling by more than 1.3 million tonnes a year, stopping paper, soft plastics and difficult-to-recycle plastics going into landfill. I was the first environment minister to block a coalmine. We protected almost 100 million hectares of land and sea, an area bigger than Italy, Germany and Norway combined. We massively expanded the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve and the Macquarie Island Marine Park, amongst others. We began the World Heritage listing process for Murujuga and Cape York. We set up new Indigenous protected areas, expanded the Indigenous Rangers Program and stopped Jabiluka from being mined for uranium. We undertook a range of fantastic projects around Australia, including supporting a bid to include the original 1978 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade route on the National Heritage List and include the Melbourne and Broken Hill trades halls on World Heritage listing for workers' architecture around the world.

Since that time, of course, Minister Watt has been doing a wonderful job in this important portfolio, and I wish him all the very best. I'm delighted to take on the portfolio of Social Services, and I'm very grateful to Minister Rishworth for her extraordinary work and skilled stewardship of the portfolio in our first term. The Social Services portfolio is where you see Labor's DNA. Neal Blewett, Brian Howe, Carmen Lawrence and my very dear friend Jenny Macklin have held this vast and vital portfolio since the 1980s and have led some of the most important reforms that Labor governments look back on with pride.

To give a sense of the scale, the payment system supports around 5½ million people, family payments support around a million families, and the Child Support Scheme supports around 1.1 million children. Overall, the system supports more than six million Australians, and in 2025-26 that'll be at a cost of $152 billion—almost 20 per cent of all government expenditure. It shows why it's so important to steward this scheme correctly and to make sure that we've got the settings right. Since the election of the Albanese government, we've made considerable strides in improving JobSeeker, Commonwealth rent assistance and paid parental leave payments and arrangements. That really makes a difference in people's lives. A single age pensioner in receipt of a full pension now receives $1,178.70 a fortnight—about $5,000 more each year than when we came to government—and an additional $1,800 per year if they're renting.

We value a system where resources are directed according to need and we're always looking for ways of making sure our system is fit for purpose. We've been very lucky over the years to receive expert advice: the Henderson poverty line, the McClure report on the adequacy of social security payments and Jeff Harmer's report on pensions and other payments. Those processes have changed the thinking of communities, and they've helped drive really durable change. The equivalent today is the advice of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, known to most people as EIAC. The Albanese government has the great good fortune to draw on Jenny Macklin's skills and enthusiasm as the Chair of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. Some of EIAC's 2025 report considerations reflect its interest in making sure that we integrate services and invest early in prevention rather than focusing once disadvantage has already taken hold. I'm very grateful to EIAC for their work and I'll continue to work with them to make sure that our system is fair.

Australia is an enormously prosperous country, and we've got one of the best-performing economies in the world, but the benefits of economic growth haven't reached everyone equally. There are 235 communities in Australia that, together, account for the top 10 per cent of disadvantage in the country. Of these communities, 65 are home to more than half of Australia's most disadvantaged people. These communities face complex and persistent social and economic challenges that can't be solved by one-size-fits-all universal programs. This is where place based work comes in. Local leaders who are embedded within their communities know the solutions that are needed in their communities. But aligning the services of government departments with the community sector and philanthropy is challenging. This term will see me focus more on place based approaches which require local and joint decision-making with investment guided by locally developed, data driven plans. We now have an opportunity to bring together the many place based approaches which are working in different parts of Australia to share effective practices and to extend these benefits to more communities.

Our $230 million Targeting Entrenched Disadvantage package has laid the groundwork for place based work in Australia, and we'll continue to do that work with the community and the not-for-profit sector. Community sector organisations help to advance many of our social goals. These organisations run parenting programs, playgroups, counselling services, crisis response teams and so much more. They foster community resilience, cohesion and wellbeing. Currently, many organisations have to apply for numerous small grants over long periods of time and piece together the funding they need to work holistically with individuals and families. With every grant program comes a range of duplicative and unnecessary administrative burdens.

The key takeaway from our partners in the community and the not-for-profit sector is that we need to move towards funding models that are simpler, longer term, more relational and which reward success. Reporting should be focused on outcomes and provide meaningful insights back to the sector about what is and isn't working so that we can continue to improve outcomes for people who need a hand. We've seen amazing employment growth numbers since coming to government—1.1 million new jobs created—and the minimum wage is up by $9,000 a year since we came to office, but too many people are still locked out of the labour market. We need to make sure that our social security settings support and incentivise people wishing to take up work or increase their hours and that we stimulate demand to employ people from groups who have a greater distance from the workforce, especially Australians living with disability. Work is about a lot more than just a pay cheque. It shapes our identity, builds confidence and self-esteem and connects us with our communities. My focus is on supporting more Australians into the benefits of work.

It is disconcerting that in 2022 just 60½ per cent of people with disability aged 15 to 64 years were in the labour force, compared to 85 per cent of people without a disability. We have to do much more than just provide payments to these people. We need to make sure that we are unlocking opportunities for people to join the labour market. As a government, we need to work to reduce complexity within the social security system and improve communication to encourage people to take up work and to ensure the system supports people to move easily from income support into work.

As a government, we are also committed to closing the gap. In my own portfolio, Closing the Gap target 12, reducing the number of children in out-of-home care, and target 13, reducing family, domestic and sexual violence, are top of my list of responsibilities. First Nations children have survived and prospered in this country for millennia, but today we find we are going backwards, with too many children entering out-of-home care. We know that the earliest years of a child's life lay the foundations for who they become and what they might achieve. It is not okay that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 12 times more likely to be in out-of-home care or connected to the child protection system. We have to do much better than that. I recently appointed Sue-Anne Hunter as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander commissioner to elevate the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. I'll work with the commissioner and all my colleagues to try to reduce the placement of First Nations kids into care.

On family, domestic and sexual violence, Closing the Gap target 13, the figures here too are stark. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 33 times more likely than other Australian women to be hospitalised due to family violence and up to seven times more likely to be homicide victims. No-one thinks this is acceptable. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have been calling for targeted programs to prevent violence, and they've been calling for a standalone Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family safety national plan. We've heard those calls, and we're in the final stages of developing that plan and establishing a peak body to oversee the delivery and implementation of that plan.

More broadly on family, domestic and sexual violence, across our nation, rates of family, domestic and sexual violence continue to be tragically and unacceptably high. On average, each week a woman is killed by a man's use of violence, and in almost every instance it's a man that she knows. Whether it be young women whose lives were only beginning or older women who had so much more to look forward to, each life taken has a profound impact on the loved ones left behind. Kids face a future without their mum; a daughter, a sister or a best friend is no longer there. And so many more women's lives are forever changed through physical injury and psychological harm by men who choose to use violence.

It's why we have invested more than any government before—and I have to pay tribute to the member for Richmond for the work that she did in the last term; it really was transformative—$4 billion across government, focusing on specialist services for women and tailored support for children and young people to heal and recover and on men's behaviour change. We've invested $700 million in new matched funding with state and territory governments for frontline services so women and children can live more safely. We're investing almost a billion dollars in making the leaving violence payment permanent to make sure that women have the support they need to leave a violent relationship. We're investing around a billion dollars in emergency and transitional housing.

We've committed $27 million over five years to work in partnership with all states and territories to explore innovative approaches to address perpetrator behaviour. If we want to see change, we need to make sure there's accountability. During the election campaign, we announced another $8.6 million to add to that work, including approaches like electronic monitoring or ankle bracelets, intensive behaviour change and specialist early intervention for young people who are at risk of using violence. We've reformed the family law system. We've invested in the eSafety Commissioner. We've had targeted education campaigns for young people to understand consent and sexual violence. We're working in the higher education sector and doing so much more. It is, indeed, a big term coming, and I'm hopeful that my time in this portfolio will be marked by a sense of urgency, purpose and engagement, making sure we do what works to make people's lives better.

Mrs ELLIOT (Richmond) (12:55): Can I say what an honour it is to be here and to have been elected to this parliament, the 48th Parliament. I really want to thank the people of Richmond for putting their trust in me for the eighth time. It is, as I say, an incredible honour and, indeed, a massive privilege to be elected to the federal parliament, and I take that on very seriously. To have been elected for the eighth time—again, I want to thank the people of Richmond for putting their trust in me.

Of course, nationally, Labor won the election and won with a very large majority. We won 94 seats, more seats that any political party in Australia's history. Right across the country we saw that people voted for Australian values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity, and these are the values that drive our government, the Albanese Labor government. Our caucus is much bigger and so much more diverse, with 56 per cent women and our new members being incredibly diverse and bringing a whole range of different skills and histories to our caucus and to the parliament. It's wonderful to see—I think we'd all agree—from the first speeches, the incredible array of people that have been elected to the 48th Parliament.

Since we've been back here, our government has been extremely busy delivering on, particularly, many of our election commitments, like reducing HECS debt by 20 per cent. This was a huge issue in my electorate, as I heard out and about talking to locals who had those huge HECS debts. Having that decreased by 20 per cent will make such a big difference to them. Since we've been back, we've been ensuring that medicines are cheaper—again, vitally important in areas like mine, the far north coast of New South Wales. We have a large proportion of elderly people, so ensuring their medicines are cheaper and ensuring it's cheaper for families is all vitally important. Also since we've been back, we've been working to protect penalty rates. That was one of our many election commitments, because we know how important it is to have penalty rates in place. Australians know that they can only rely on Labor to deliver for them when it comes to their working conditions and, particularly, protecting their penalty rates.

In terms of my seat of Richmond, I really want to thank all those that worked so hard for Labor to retain the seat, and I really want to thank those that assisted on polling day and with prepoll, doorknocking and the phone calls. I say a big thanks to all my wonderful staff, all of our local Labor members and those other Labor members that came and assisted us. Thank you to the wonderful union movement, our New South Wales head office and the national secretariat for their great work and to all those volunteers and supporters that provided help to us. Together, we made more than 50,000 phone calls and doorknocks in this campaign. We were out and about every day, talking to locals about the issues that are important to them. I want to thank everyone who assisted. Of course, I say a special thanks to all of my family—my husband, Craig, and our children—and to our extended family as well. Thanks to all of you for your continued support over the last eight terms and throughout this campaign as well. It means the world to me.

In Richmond, we ran a very positive and optimistic campaign the whole time, and we were focused on delivering real cost-of-living relief for locals, including the tax cuts for every taxpayer—incredibly important in my area; strengthening Medicare—an issue that comes up all the time; fixing our housing crisis, which has made it so difficult in terms of people being able to access a house and rentals; and also investing in renewables and boosting wages. Free TAFE has been a real game changer across the country, and, in my seat of Richmond, more than 5,000 people have been able to access our free TAFE plan. What a difference it makes, not just for them getting increased education but also for their capacity to find work, and it strengthens our economy as well. As I referred to earlier, we're cutting HECS by 20 per cent. We've got more than 19,000 people in my electorate who will benefit from that.

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program, as we know, is being taken up at a huge rate across the country—indeed, Richmond is one of the electorates with the highest take-up rates on that, which is great to see. Other policies like energy bill relief for every household, cheaper child care and medicines, and more rent assistance are, again, making a big difference. We've also always had a very strong focus on strengthening our economy, creating more than a million jobs in that last term of government, keeping our economy strong so we can keep delivering on all the vital services that we do.

The campaign was like all tough campaigns—on one hand we had the Liberal and National parties who were in disarray and talking most of the time about their nuclear policy. After speaking to all those people in my community, I know they totally rejected that—the cost of it, the danger of it. They honestly thought it was quite absurd, and clearly that's what Australians thought right across the board. Also in my electorate, the Greens were rejected as well, because of the extreme nature, particularly blocking so many good initiatives like housing. Everywhere I would go, people would say to me they were done with the Greens in terms of the fact they were blocking really good initiatives that we have. I think both the Greens political party and the Liberal and National parties did pay the price for constantly blocking our initiatives. I think the Australian people have said very loudly and clearly to both those political parties that Australians don't want to see constant blocking—they want to see improvements. They wanted to see in place the improvements that we had, particularly when it comes to housing.

Throughout the campaign, full credit goes to our wonderful prime minister. He was out there every day, focused on building Australia's future and talking about Labor's positive policies. I made it very clear to my community during the campaign that they could always count on me to keep delivering for our region as part of an Albanese Labor government. At the election, there was a very clear choice between building Australia's future with us or taking Australia backwards with the Liberals and Nationals—which we know would have left us all worse off. We pointed out—and I point out every day in my region—that our cost-of-living relief was all at risk under the Liberals and Nationals, because they opposed every single one of Labor's cost-of-living measures, even voting against tax cuts. People found that absolutely appalling. I pointed out many times that Peter Dutton, when the former opposition leader was health minister, wanted to scrap bulk-billing and introduce a tax on every single visit to the GP, started a six-year freeze on Medicare rebates, and cut $50 billion from our hospitals. Locals know that when the Liberals and Nationals say that they'll cut public services, that affects Medicare, bulk-billing, our cheaper medicines, veterans' claims, and the age pension as well. Indeed, Peter Dutton had said there were too many free Medicare services. Locals completely rejected any of the measures from the Liberals and Nationals when it comes to health care, because they don't trust them.

Since the election, unfortunately, we have seen no reflection or change of policies from those opposite, or from the Greens political party. No lessons have been learnt. They haven't listened to the community right throughout the country in terms of why they've been rejected, and I think they all need to be doing that and reflecting upon the policies and their actions as well. The fact is, Labor is strengthening Medicare, and we're very proud of that, with more bulk-billing and training more doctors, as well as increasing the Medicare rebate—it's so important.

In my region, I made a number of election commitments, like the free bulk-billed Medicare urgent care clinic, the Medicare mental health centre, the crime action plan, and funding for the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital—again, initiatives that I'll detail in a minute that will have positive improvements for the New South Wales North Coast. Throughout the campaign, I talked about my record of delivery, of working very closely with the community and what we have delivered. Indeed, I've delivered more than $3 billion for our area, including all of my previous election commitments from the 2022 election. I'll run through those in a bit more detail in a minute—we've got the new animal pound, the new veterans' hub, the social enterprise laundry and the Lennox Head village upgrade. People know that when I make a promise I will always deliver on it, and we've seen all of those election commitments delivered.

Now to the 2025 election. Earlier this year, I announced that a re-elected Albanese Labor government would deliver a Medicare urgent care clinic for the Tweed region. We're now delivering on that, with the tender process started and under way from 22 August. That will identify a provider to operate that Tweed urgent care clinic. This clinic will give more locals access to the high-quality, free, walk-in urgent healthcare that they need. I've said to many people in our community: as your local Labor MP, you can count on me to deliver that urgent care clinic in the Tweed region, so you can get the free, fully bulk-billed urgent care you need—all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.

The new Tweed Valley Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will be open over extended hours, seven days a week, with no appointment needed, and all patients will be fully bulk-billed. And what a difference it will make. The clinic, of course, is also intended to take pressure off the Tweed Valley Hospital and will fill an important gap in services across extended hours and over weekends.

A tender process, led by the North Coast Primary Health Network, has commenced, as I said, to identify the provider to operate the new clinic. It'll be open to general practices, community health centres and Aboriginal community-controlled health services. This really does extend on the Albanese Labor government's commitment to strengthen Medicare. And, of course, we've made the single largest investment in Medicare since its creation more than 40 years ago, and we are very, very proud of our continued investment in Medicare.

I also announced earlier this year that a re-elected Albanese Labor government would establish a Medicare mental health centre in Tweed Heads. When we have that, it will mean that locals will have access to free, walk-in mental healthcare when that centre is open. Again, it'll be open for extended hours, with no appointment or referral needed to access those services—just walk in, and they are free. It'll be staffed by qualified mental health professionals to provide the support people need. Again, there will be a tender process through the North Coast Primary Health Network, who will commission the Tweed Medicare mental health centre.

This is really important because, as we've discussed here—and as we discuss a lot at home too—the mental health needs of my community, indeed throughout the country, are quite extensive, particularly in our region after the devastating 2022 floods. There are still many people who require support as a result of that disaster. Having this service in place will be vitally important, particularly because people can just walk in and it is free. Again, it builds on all of the things that our government does to provide health services.

Late last year I was very pleased to announce—actually in Lennox Head, with the Prime Minister there for the announcement—that, if re-elected, we would deliver $3 million for a North Coast crime prevention infrastructure action plan. I want to note and thank the whole community. Again, this is a real community victory. Labor always listens and acts, and our community had called for this. I thank the Prime Minister for coming to Lennox Head to make that announcement late last year.

This $3 million commitment will fund infrastructure measures for crime prevention and community safety in our North Coast communities. It includes a million dollars for each of the three local government areas, Tweed, Byron and Ballina. As a former frontline police officer, I know firsthand how important it is that we have more resources, including CCTV, to combat crime on the North Coast. Of course, it's up to each of the councils to decide how that money is used in terms of community safety, but it could be used for CCTV, lighting, bollards, fencing or landscaping to improve community safety, reduce crime risks and enhance the vibrancy and usability of shared community spaces. Again, this is a community victory, and I thank everyone who advocated for it.

Another very exciting election commitment was $2 million for the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital. They are fantastic. They opened in 2020 and operate seven days a week. They've treated more than 9,000 native animals, including hundreds of threatened species. The Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital operates inside a custom-built semitrailer, making it Australia's only mobile wildlife hospital. It can also be deployed during natural disasters to treat impacted wildlife. They do an amazing job, and I want to acknowledge the whole team at the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital for their important veterinary work rehabilitating native animals, for leading the way in wildlife protection across our region and for their strong community advocacy as well. Thank you. Again, it is another community victory that I was able to announce that election commitment, and I very much look forward to delivering on it.

As I said, locals can always count on me. I've delivered all of my 2022 election commitments, and it's great to see them all in place: the $1.5 million towards the completion of the Lennox Head village upgrade—a wonderful village, one of our most beautiful coastal villages. We have many in my region, and this investment makes a huge difference to local infrastructure.

Last year, the Prime Minister and I officially opened the Beacon Laundry in Bangalow. It's a jobs-focused, not-for-profit social enterprise run by White Box Enterprises, who run similar projects across the country. Our election commitment was $750,000 to help fit out that laundry. That laundry is now up and running and employing more than 100 locals. It provides vital job opportunities for long-term unemployed locals, who get to gain work experience and receive ongoing training in a fully supported environment. But it's also of huge benefit to our local tourism industry, as we didn't have a large-scale commercial laundry on the North Coast. But now we do. Beacon Laundry provides that laundry option for businesses in tourism, and they are very, very busy and constantly employing more people.

Also, there was my election commitment of $5 million for the veterans hub. The temporary hub is now open, and it's fantastic. It's in Tweed Heads. I really want to acknowledge RSL Lifecare Veteran Services and RSL NSW, who we worked closely with to get that open. It's located on Wharf Street, Tweed Heads. The temporary hub is there, and the permanent hub is opening in the same spot. They've got tailored supports and services for veterans, and that's so important for improving the health and wellbeing of local veterans and for providing whatever services they may need. It's important to provide that for those who have bravely served our nation and for their families as well. I know that these veterans hubs have been a great success across the nation, so I'm very proud to have one in our region.

The last of my 2022 commitments I wanted to speak about is the Tweed Shire Council pound—the new pound we're going to be opening up very soon. It's a new pound and rehoming centre in South Murwillumbah. I want to acknowledge the Tweed Shire Council, who advocated strongly for this and who are currently finishing it off. My election commitment in 2022 was for $1 million for the pound, building upon the $1.76 million in federal funding we had already secured. That's a massive federal funding initiative for the pound. The design and build of the facility is in line with the latest in animal welfare guidelines; features new dog kennels, catteries and facilities; and replaces the old pound at Stotts Creek. I especially want to acknowledge the remarkable people at Friends of the Pound, who do such a great job in looking after our animals. I've told the House this before, but, when we made the announcement about our election commitment in late 2021, Friends of the Pound brought along some wonderful animals, including some rescue dogs, and I met and fell in love with Teddy—a half chihuahua—and we adopted him. Six months later we adopted his sister Cindy-Lou. I know that locals would want to know that they're very doing well, and we keep in constant contact with Friends of the Pound. I acknowledge the remarkable work they continue to do, and having this new facility will add to that great work.

In the time I have left, I'd like to speak about all our initiatives around housing. Indeed, this is one of the biggest issues we face in our region and right across the country. I was pleased to hear the announcement the other day that in fact we are as a government helping more Australians realise their dream of homeownership sooner by launching the five per cent home deposit scheme for first home buyers on 1 October this year, instead of next year. What a response there has been to that! It is so important that so many people, including younger Australians, can buy their home sooner, and it builds on all of the initiatives that we've had in place in terms of providing housing support and access to it. We need to have more houses built. We need to have all these initiatives in place, and we are absolutely committed to doing that.

Earlier this year I announced a very important initiative for my region, which is that the Albanese Labor government is delivering 15 new affordable units in Brunswick Heads through the first round of the Housing Australia Future Fund. We're committed to approving more social and affordable housing. These particular homes are for renters, first home buyers, women and children fleeing domestic violence and those at risk of homelessness. That's why having these units will make such a big difference. We know the needs for social and affordable housing are quite extensive, so I was very proud to have that announcement in place. We'd previously announced 26 safe places for women and children fleeing domestic violence in Tweed Heads as well, but as a government we are totally focused on improving the housing situation across the country, whether that be through home deposits or Housing Australia or one of our many other initiatives. It is a strong focus, I know, for the Prime Minister and the entire government.

Lastly, I want to mention yet another great initiative from our government that helps so much in terms of health care. There was a reclassification of Murwillumbah from a city to a regional area, which was a game changer for local GPs and patients. It meant they could bulk-bill more and they could also attract more doctors. I really want to thank the Minister for Health and Ageing for visiting Murwillumbah and seeing that it's not a city but a regional area and that this needed to be changed. We corrected a mistake by the previous Liberal-National government, which had made it previously impossible to get bulk-billing in Murwillumbah. The Albanese Labor government listened, and we changed it. There are now so many more doctors that are bulk-billing. In fact, we have a practice that now is universally bulk-billing everyone, ahead of our 1 November changes. It shows that we are a government that really does listen to communities, acts on their concerns and improves things. The fact that now so many people in Murwillumbah and surrounding areas can get a bulk-billing doctor is so important, because they couldn't do that under the previous government.

We are a government with a big agenda, and, as I said, it's an absolute honour and privilege to have been re-elected, for the eighth time, and one that I take very seriously. I certainly want to thank all the people from Richmond for re-electing me.

Ms KEARNEY (Cooper—Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence) (13:15): I rise to speak in reply to the Governor-General's address, and I thank her most warmly for her wonderful service.

Well, the 2025 election was won by an Albanese Labor government, and it was won on the basis of a belief in moving towards a more equal and caring Australia, with greater opportunity for all. The Australian people chose a future based on positivity, on hope and on trust over negativity and division. Reflecting upon it all has been such a positive experience. Our pitch to the Australian people was more cost-of-living support, free TAFE, lower HECS, safer penalty rates, action on climate change and cheaper energy, more bulk-billing, cheaper medicines, the valuing of workers, and cheaper contraceptives and women's health care—just to name a few things. The women's health package was particularly popular in my electorate of Cooper, as were the wonderful Medicare urgent care clinics.

During the campaign, while traipsing the streets of Preston, I met a lovely woman, about 50 years of age. Let's call her Sue. Sue is a public servant and manages her life by working from home. Her house seemed beautifully chaotic and full of life. The sound of her dog barking and her teenage daughter yelling in the background made me reminiscent of when my three girls and my son used to all live at home with me. Sue told me that her life is difficult but fun and full of love. When I told her how the government is slashing the cost of Estrogel, she was actually ecstatic. Then, when I told her about how we are cutting the cost of contraceptives and endometriosis care, her face lit up again. Sue was so happy to hear that a government is not just taking women's health seriously but prioritising it. The hundreds of dollars Sue would save through cheaper medicine for herself and her daughters would be life changing. It gave Sue more room to breathe and more room to enjoy her beautiful and chaotic life. Her experience is emblematic of so many women I met on the doors during this campaign.

It struck me that what women want is really simple: to be heard, to be seen, to live with respect and to feel equal. It isn't luxury; it is safety and it is time—time to be with family, time to be their own person. What they want is to live, not just to survive with their heads bobbing above the water. It's what I always wanted, too, because hearts starve just as bodies do. Sue's story was echoed right across my electorate of Cooper, from the cafe belts of Northcote to the sporting clubs of Reservoir. It didn't matter what class or background women came from; that desire for dignity, for fairness and for joy, not just the daily grind, is what I heard again and again.

I know this not just from my own conversations but from all the conversations my incredible volunteers had. I'd like to take a moment to thank all those who committed so many hours during the campaign, rain, hail or shine. In Cooper we ran a people powered campaign. We relied on volunteers having real conversations with community members, whether it was knocking on thousands of doors across the electorate, phone banking night after night, or spending early mornings at train stations or long hours at prepoll. It was the principled and driven members of Cooper Labor that made the campaign so successful. Thank you to the incredible people who sacrificed time out of their weekends and lives to help deliver a historic victory in Cooper. This win is your win.

To Daryl, Stefan, Astin, Tharun, Thomas, Shelley, Kristine, Vasilios, Matt, Emily, Tracey, Phil, Geraldine, Peter, Kate, Georgie, Cheryl, John, Jordan, Kiz and Div, David, Ramy, Koda, Riley, Jane, Marko, Andy, Mirsada, Aljalil, Brendan, Jane, Charlotte, James, Chris and so many others: thank you so much. And of course all of the Northcote and Preston Labor branches, uni Melbourne Labor, La Trobe Labor, my staff, and my wonderful family: thank you. Your energy, your care and your belief in something better were the heartbeat of the Cooper campaign.

During the election, we spoke to thousands of women and men across Cooper about their concerns, and we had some very frank conversations. They were good conversations, and we made some very big promises. Cooper is a place of radicals and pragmatists, workers, business owners, professionals and academics and people from every background and walk of life, and people in Cooper are incredibly politically engaged. They keep me on my toes, and they know my every movement. They hold me accountable. So often I would knock on the door and the person who answered it would recognise me, lean on the side of the door and say, 'Ged Kearney, I have got something to say to you.' Sometimes I would worry, but most times it was because they cared deeply about the many things that I care about, like the environment and climate change, in particular.

In fact, during the campaign, there was one man in his 40s who I met in Reservoir who managed to list almost every single climate initiative from the Future Made in Australia Bill to our solar initiatives and subsidies for home batteries. As a young father to young daughters, he expressed a terrible sense of dread about their future, yet, when he was met with a choice between voting for me or the Greens candidate, he chose me. He chose to vote for me because he knew that only a Labor government would deliver practical change and he knew that I would fight for that delivery. I do not take his vote lightly.

My fight is quite easy with a minister for climate change and energy like Minister Bowen, who made some genuinely progressive and impressive commitments during the election. During that time, I was also proud to announce $3 million to support the local environment in my electorate, including much-needed funding for Edwardes Lake, Merri Creek, Edgars Creek, Darebin Creek and our local grey-headed flying-fox colony. I also got to announce upgrades for the Darebin Falcons, upgrades for Reservoir and Northcote senior citizens' centres, funding for Preston Lions, supports for Northcote Baptist Church, the Melkite community hall, Kouchkovski social club and the Darusalam Community Centre, and, importantly, $3 million to the Aborigines Advancement League, to see our women and girls' sport and wellness centre built in the next year.

All of these go into my theory of change and are why I think Cooper gave me the honour of representing them. I believe change should be grounded in the simple belief that every person and every community matters. I believe in the politics of empathy—where we build community, where we don't drive competition, where governments don't step back but step up to support people to live with dignity and opportunity. We need a government that cares, that acts and that leads, like a government that fights for gender equality, for example, so all women can thrive, that backs strong unions, that lifts all workers and that takes bold climate action which leaves no-one behind. I also believe that change happens and matters at every single level, from sweeping national reform to local community driven work. Everything that we do in this building, no matter how big or small, has the power to shape someone's life. That's why we must always ask: who is this policy helping? At the end of the day, policy is not abstract; it's very personal.

One of the promises closest to my heart and one that truly defines who I am as a former nurse, a unionist and a feminist is our commitment to women's health. This includes listing medications for endometriosis and menopause and new contraceptive medications on the PBS for the first time in decades, of which all have now been capped at just $25. I'm so proud of this policy because, when we announce policies targeted towards women, we're saying: 'We see you. Your pain is real, your needs matter and your health matters.' We're also saying: 'You deserve to do more than just survive; you deserve to live.' This is just one part of the broader feminist agenda.

On top of this, the Albanese Labor government is also changing the way we value care. We've expanded paid parental leave to six months, with dedicated time for both parents, and, from this year, we'll pay superannuation on that leave for the first time ever.

We're also making child care cheaper. This was a very popular promise with both women and men during the election, because by pushing costs down we are pushing opportunity up. What was also popular was our support for a real pay rise in feminised industries, because for too long too many industries and unscrupulous employers have relied on a historical sexist presumption about women's work and the care economy. On top of this, we've introduced employer level gender pay gap reporting and achieved our lowest gender pay gap on record.

We are also working to end all forms of family, domestic and sexual violence. Already we've made a record investment of over $4 billion in new prevention and support services to combat family, domestic and sexual violence, and we're investing in incredible programs that are working to address sexual violence, including Consent Can't Wait, Teach Us Consent, Stop it at the Start and Our Watch. We've almost completed the development of the First Nations national safety plan, Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices.

Today I have the privilege of working alongside the new Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek, who is committed to transformational change for women. The Attorney-General is also doing some transformative work, building on reforms initiated by the former attorney-general to strengthen justice responses to family, domestic and sexual violence, including through harmonising consent and sexual assault laws across jurisdictions and increasing supports for those navigating the judicial system. The Minister for Housing has done some incredible work in making housing more accessible, including by investing over $1 billion for housing for women and children fleeing family and domestic violence. And Minister Wells in the Communications portfolio is delivering much-needed safety measures. There are reforms that she has introduced in banking and financial abuse, protecting women.

Of course, last term we also delivered 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave, something I am particularly proud of because I had been fighting for this for over a decade, including when I was President of the ACTU. I fought alongside the mighty ASU and so many other unions for paid family and domestic violence leave, because no woman should choose between fleeing to safety and putting food on the table. This initiative also supports women to continue their careers, because they shouldn't have to choose between surviving and thriving at work.

As the Assistant Minister for Social Services, working with Minister Plibersek on the prevention of family violence, I'm as fired up as ever to keep fighting. I'm fired up for people like Hope in my electorate. Her story tells the insidious nature of family and domestic violence, because it's not just the moment of an attack that's painful. Abuse seeps into every aspect of life. Hope and her mother experienced terrible abuse in the home, with one attack leaving Hope's mother deaf in one ear. People would ask Hope and her mum, 'Why don't you just leave?' Hope told me of the shame she felt whenever that question was asked—a shame that should never have been felt and a question that should never have been asked, because the reality for Hope was that, when she and her mum did flee, they were met with increased threats, financial abuse, intimidation, stalking and an attempt to set their home on fire. After they received a protection order and many other supports that got them to safety, the mental recovery began, which took years.

Hope is now doing very well. Actually, she's not just doing well; she's thriving. She's thriving because she had access to social security, free mental health support and good legal support. But what she wants people to know is that violence isn't just physical and fleeing isn't so simple. We must stop violence before it starts, and we must address it in all forms, including coercive control, sexual violence, financial violence and verbal abuse. If we want to stop violence, we need to make a concerted effort across all government departments and all parts of society.

That's why all of us in the Albanese Labor government are deeply committed to stopping family, domestic and sexual violence in a generation. I want to quickly acknowledge the incredible prior work in this portfolio by my dear colleagues Minister Rishworth and the member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, who have enacted incredible change, making the Albanese Labor government the largest investor in women's safety in history. Now it's time to grow and build on that, and grow rapidly. To get there, we must fight for cultural and social change, and that means working with men and boys. That means building healthy relationships and attitudes towards women from a young age. That means talking about consent, respect, digital literacy and healthy masculinity, but it also means fighting those factors that we now know lead some men and some boys down a path of violence, including social isolation, mental ill health and addiction. It means prioritising and protecting children, fostering their recovery and stopping the cycle of violence for them. None of these circumstances excuse the use of violence, but they do explain how it can happen, and we must do everything possible to stop that violence before it starts.

This is part of our feminist agenda, and it's a feminist agenda focused not just on survival; it's an agenda focused on truly living. To Sue and Hope, and all the Sues and Hopes out there, this is one of the main reasons I came to this place: for you, for your safety, for your life—to look at the heart and not just the body. We want women not just to survive but to thrive and to have choices, opportunity, love and family, and we want the same for our men and boys.

I'm deeply proud to do this in a Labor government. I'm deeply, deeply proud that the people of the electorate of Cooper elected me to represent them. I know that they care about the things that I care about. I know that they want me to stand here and speak up for them over and over again and to fight for policies that actually change their lives. The women of Cooper have spoken. They have told me that the policies we enacted in the last term of government have changed their lives. They have told me that they can now absolutely afford the medications that they need. So many of the women in Cooper have sent me pictures from their phones of how much their bill is—the actual dockets from when they go to the chemist, pick up their medication and see that no longer are they paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars every year for their medication; they're now getting it for so much less. So many women have cried. I've heard wonderful stories about our endometriosis clinics; they have changed people's lives. Women have said to me that for the first time ever, when they walk into these clinics, they are heard, they are believed and they are given treatment that absolutely validates years and years of their pain and suffering—years of being gaslit and being told, 'There's nothing wrong with you,' 'It's all in your head,' or 'It's just a woman's lot to put up with it.' And that is not the case. We can do something about that.

And then there are the wonderful organisations in my electorate who work every single day and volunteer to make sure that their communities are kept safe, are not isolated and have somewhere to go. Amazing organisations like the Kouchkovski Social Club, the Elderly Citizens Club and our football clubs do so much for our communities, making sure people are fit and mentally well and that they can have a life that feels fulfilled. Isolation is a terrible scourge in our community, and supporting our very important social clubs is an incredibly important part of making sure we have a cohesive and strong society.

Working with our First Nations communities is also incredibly important to me. I have a vibrant and amazing First Nations community in my electorate, which, I'm very proud to say, is also home to so many of the peak bodies that do great work in Victoria and beyond. The Aboriginal Advancement League is an amazing organisation that promotes wellbeing and a healthy future for our Aboriginal community. It was with great pleasure that we announced $3 million to support their women's wellness and sports centre. I know that this sports centre will make a huge difference to that community. It's been in planning for a long, long time. Finally showing that the federal government is willing to support that meant that the state government was also willing to come on board and deliver much-needed funding. Not only will the community gain a beautiful new centre for their women and girls to partake in sport, to stay well, to stay connected and to be proud of their culture, but we will also have brand-new turf for the much-beloved Fitzroy Stars Football Club. I'm very proud to be part of that. I'm very proud that we have been able to deliver for the people of Cooper.

Sitting suspended from 13:35 to 16:00

Ms BYRNES (Cunningham) (16:00): My second speech to the last parliament was about a wonderful local girl, Harper Rollinson, who gave her first speech in Parliament House three days after I gave my first speech to the parliament. Harper spoke about her cochlear ear implants. When I first met Harper she told me she wanted more love hearts and butterflies in the parliament, and I think about that often as I go about my day-to-day duties here in the parliament and in the electorate. I have tried to focus on a positive and proactive approach to my duties, and acting out of kindness and empathy, particularly for the most vulnerable in our community. I thought about this again during the Governor-General's speech at the opening of the parliament, where she said:

We are also the product of generations of migrants who, coming here in search of a better life, have found a place of courage, kindness, and the fair go.

I am really pleased to have this opportunity today to talk about some of the amazing things that I have been fighting for in my community over the past three years to improve the lives of people in the Illawarra. During the last term of government, as a first-term MP, I was absolutely devoted to working as hard as I could to deliver real results for my community. My focus has been on seizing the opportunities of the future, preparing for the transition that we must have in our energy sector, and supporting local people with the rising cost of living. I have been so incredibly proud to be part of a government that has achieved so much positive change over three short years, both locally and nationally.

During my first term I have delivered nearly $1 billion of investment and cost-of-living relief to the electorate of Cunningham. We've delivered: a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer so that people can keep more of what they earn; energy bill relief for every household; cheaper childcare for local families; cheaper medicines; pay rises for some of our lowest-paid workers; and so much more. We have proudly delivered Medicare urgent care centres at Corrimal and at Dapto so that local people can get free urgent care when they need it the most—vital services taking pressure off Wollongong Hospital.

Aged care is another huge issue in my electorate, with bed block and access to high-needs aged-care beds a real issue. I worked hard with the minister for aged care during the last term to secure $17.4 million for new local aged-care beds and upgrades in Cunningham. I have also delivered $6.2 million for 35 new transition aged-care places for the Illawarra Shoalhaven local health district to help get vulnerable people out of our overburdened hospital. I would like to acknowledge the work of New South Wales Minister for Health and member for Keira, Ryan Park, for his dedication and support on this issue at a state government level. There is still a lot of work to do on aged care in the Illawarra. I have already reached out to the new Minister for Aged Care and Seniors to invite him to beautiful Wollongong to meet with our local aged-care taskforce and hear firsthand the challenges facing our aged-care sector. I very much look forward to this engagement in the near future.

It is well known that nationally we are suffering a housing and homelessness crisis, and the Illawarra is by no means exempt from the impact of this. Nationally we have developed the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build more social and affordable homes. I was delighted to see the Housing Trust receive support under round 1 of the Housing Australia Future Fund facility for three projects in the Wollongong LGA, with a combined value of $34 million. This will provide 45 dedicated long-term social and affordable rental homes. We have provided SAHSSI with $4.6 million to purchase, remodel and expand six dwellings in the Wollongong LGA for women and children who are experiencing family and domestic violence as well as older women who are at risk of homelessness. Our government also supported SAHSSI with 32 safe places, assisting up to 256 women and children experiencing family and domestic violence through the Safe Places program. We know there's much more to do, and we are absolutely committed to eliminating family and domestic violence in one generation. We have also delivered the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme, benefiting 680 local people, as well as increases to rent assistance. This is making a big difference in the lives of local people right now.

I can see so much opportunity for the Illawarra. With thriving industry a stone's throw from the Sydney CBD and a world-leading university calling our region home, we are ideally positioned to play a critical and important role in our energy transition.

Over many years, I have received a real in-depth understanding of the thriving local industrial innovation that is happening in my home town. Just recently, I attended the groundbreaking of a new world-class advanced materials production centre in Coniston. Gravitas Technologies has been backed by $1.5 million under the Albanese government's Industry Growth Program to build new state-of-the-art high-technology warehouses to sit alongside its existing facility. As CEO Sam Moricca said, 'This is more than just a building; it marks the arrival of another high-tech industry in Wollongong.' We're helping them innovate faster, bring their product to market faster and create new jobs for the future—a future made in Wollongong. And this is only one example. Our government has also invested in our local renewable hydrogen industry, with $15 million to Hysata, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and nearly $30 million in grants from ARENA since Hysata's days as a startup out of the University of Wollongong, getting this technology off the ground.

All up during my first term, I worked incredibly hard to see over $180 million invested in local industry and innovation, including supporting the Port Kembla steelworks. We've provided $1 million for community batteries in Warrawong and Dapto and $5.4 million for the Electrify 2515 home-electrification pilot. Our government has also invested in the incredible work of the University of Wollongong, with more than $56 million in Australian Research Council grants, $10 million for the Energy Future Skills Centre to train our workforce of the future and over $1 million through ARENA for a harmonic study which will progress renewable energy grids. We've also invested over $42 million for additional Commonwealth supported places at the university to train more teachers, nurses, engineers and mathematicians. That's on top of fee-free TAFE and over $3 million for upgrades to 15 local schools.

Our Labor government believes in regional communities. We believe in investing in the infrastructure that regions need for our future, like $312 million for the Mount Ousley Road interchange, a long-overdue project that will revolutionise the gateway to Wollongong. This is merely a snapshot of the incredible support that the Albanese Labor government has given to the Illawarra during my short three years as member for Cunningham. It has been my absolute honour to represent this community through that time and to be part of some incredible future innovations that set us up on the world stage. But our work is only just beginning. We have huge plans for this term, starting with the very first piece of legislation of this parliament: cutting student debt by 20 per cent—a change that will benefit more than 22,800 people in Cunningham. With our local world-class university training the workforce of the future, this is simply huge.

From 1 July we have also supported our next generation of local teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers with paid prac during their training. Helping to address the shortages in these industries and removing the cost burden of getting this vital experience will make a huge difference. That's just the start when it comes to continued cost-of-living support in the second term of the Albanese government. Already the House has voted in support of our Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025 to protect penalty and overtime rates for millions of Australians. This important bill will enshrine penalty and overtime entitlements for around 2.6 million modern-award-reliant workers. Under Labor, inflation is falling, unemployment remains low, and real wages are rising again. We have created 1.1 million jobs and we're seeing interest rates coming down. This is because of the good economic management of our government. We've also gone a step further on cheaper medicines, with new legislation introduced to cap the cost of prescriptions under the PBS to no more than $25 from 1 July next year. This is great news for all Australians.

Our early learning sector should be a safe place for our kids. Australians have been utterly devastated by the recent revelations showing a system in urgent need of reform. Our government has moved quickly to pass legislation, giving the Commonwealth stronger powers to protect children in early learning settings. Under the reforms the government will be able to suspend or remove funding from providers that fail to meet national safety standards, conduct unannounced inspections and prevent non-compliant services from expanding. We have also committed to decisive action to deliver a national approach to, and address systematic gaps in, working-with-children checks to improve the safety of children across Australia. This is vital work, and there's more to be done, but I am pleased to see that the government is wasting no time in addressing these shocking revelations.

There is certainly a lot more work to do to address some of the biggest challenges facing our community right now. I will keep working hard to deliver on my promises, like $10 million for the Southern Suburbs Community Centre and Library, in Warrawong; $5 million for the regional multicultural community centre; and $13.6 million for the St George Illawarra Dragons' Community and High Performance Centre. I will keep working to deliver improvements to local housing and homelessness services, aged care and health services. I will continue my push to have a clean energy future made right here in the Illawarra.

There are just a few more proud moments, and some butterflies, from my first term that I'd like to quickly touch on. During my first term I joined my good friend Lachlan Stevens, who's the vice-president of the Wollongong RSL sub-Branch and founder of Walk With Us Kokoda, and I walked the Kokoda Track. On day 2 of the track, you cross the same river 22 times, but we were also surrounded by beautiful blue butterflies that often perched on our shoulder, and again I thought of little Harper. You have a lot of time to think on the track, as you are climbing the mountains that never ever seem to end, and I thought a lot about all the things that still needed to be done. In fact, Lachlan, Marija Murray and I compiled a 'stuff we need to fix' list as we walked, which included things like veteran claims to be processed, the NDIS and aged care. These are the things that keep me up at night—all issues that need to be approached with kindness, fairness and empathy.

Another achievement of the Albanese Labor government during our first term was bringing home the remaining five men who had been incarcerated in Indonesia since 2005. I have worked with the Stephens family for over 20 years, mostly in my capacity as a staffer to my predecessor, the Hon. Sharon Bird MP. They are a beautiful and tight-knit family who have endured so much since their son, Martin, was arrested. I spent so many hours with Martin's mum and dad, the amazing Bill and Michele Stephens, and helped them through their great pain throughout the 20 years that Martin was incarcerated. I was so very proud of our prime minister and foreign minister when, during our first term, they secured the release of these men due to the strong relationships that they had built with our friends in Indonesia—the closure of my longest ever constituent case and I think perhaps the longest in the parliament. Martin is working. He's doing charity work, he has a car, he's keeping fit, he's looking after his family and he's trying so very hard to be a good and constructive member of our community. I am so proud of what he has achieved since his release.

I was also delighted to finally meet Scott and his new partner and catch up again with his mum and dad, the strong and courageous Chris and Lee Rush. They are another family I have worked closely with for many years. I was very touched to receive a card and a beautiful letter of thanks from Scott and his partner. Again, butterflies made their way into my parliamentary term; this is the envelope for the card, adorned with butterflies. Like Martin, Scott is working hard on his future, and I can't wait to see what he achieves. I'm so very proud of him too. I would like to take a moment to thank President Prabowo Subianto for his kindness and compassion, which has led to the men returning home. I would also like to thank the team that I worked many hours with to help bring the men home: Marshall Irwin, Sarah Bradley, Stephen Keim, Julian McMahon, Peter Strain and Erskine Rodan. I would also like to thank the hundreds of public servants who worked on ensuring the health and safety of the boys while incarcerated and who also helped to bring them home. I would also like to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the men who did not make it home.

My latest butterfly interaction was recently with Gloria Holloway from the Country Women's Association in Stanwell Park. What a dynamo she is! When I met Gloria, she was a little bit miffed at being overtaken as the oldest member of the CWA—she's 91—by a new member who's 92. She had on the most beautiful butterfly necklace. She is a passionate advocate for the women involved in the CWA and the Stanwell Park local community.

And let's not forget the love hearts—another reminder of Harper following me around—like this beautiful piece of pottery made by Daniella Lagazio, proudly displayed at the Greenacres Outsider art exhibition recently. This will now be displayed on my wall of local art in my Parliament House office. There have been love hearts and butterflies everywhere. There are so many people doing amazing work, far too many to mention here. I am so very privileged to be able to work with, and visit, so many people and organisations doing amazing things in my local community.

So to Harper: I have been so privileged to have encountered so many butterflies and love hearts during my first term. Thank you for putting them out to the universe for me to find—small pieces of joy in my day and special reminders of why we are here. I am so grateful to the people of the Cunningham electorate, who have once again put their faith in me to represent them in this place. I take that responsibility and privilege very seriously, and I am looking forward to three more years of hard work delivering for my community.

Ms CATHERINE KING (Ballarat—Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) (16:15): I know that you do not hold a seat when you are sitting in that chair, but I particularly want to acknowledge the events happening in your electorate as we speak. It's somewhere I've visited regularly. My nephew has just bought a house in Porepunkah and had his wedding there last year. I know what a beautiful community it is. I'm devastated for the community and for the members of the police force who've lost their lives. I know that you will play a very important leadership role in helping the community post all of these events. I want to acknowledge that.

It is an enormous privilege to stand here before you today as the re-elected member for Ballarat. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands of my electorate, the Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples, and pay my respects to elders past and present. The past few years in particular have taught me even more about the resilience of our First Nations people, and how we, as non-Indigenous people, have so much to learn from them. I thank the local traditional owners for their ongoing generosity in sharing their culture and the grace and wisdom with which they conduct themselves and support community each and every single day.

My electorate, like all of the 150 in this place, is a very special place—one of history, diversity and opportunity. I never take for granted the incredible honour it is to represent my community here in our nation's capital. I'll continue to work every day to get the best outcomes for the people of Ballarat and for every Australian. While I have other responsibilities across the whole of the nation, it never escapes me that the only reason I have the opportunity to be a minister—a cabinet minister in this government—is because of the people of Ballarat. While I have other titles, the one I am most deeply proud of is being the member for Ballarat.

I'd like to say a special thank you to every person who helped and supported me during the campaign—my family, my fabulous staff, my friends and my volunteers. I'm extremely grateful to all of you for your contribution; I could not have done this without you. I'm not going to name everybody. I have done so in the past, but today I have only a limited amount of time. I particularly want to acknowledge my electorate office staff and my personal staff, who worked incredibly hard, as well as people such as Craig Fletcher and the local union movement, who also assisted so diligently.

Throughout the 2025 campaign, I had the privilege of standing on prepoll for two weeks, pretty much continuously in the same spot—I didn't move—speaking with many different people from our community. I met young mums and dads worried about the rising cost of child care and how they can balance work and family life. I spoke with students anxious about their growing HECS debt and how it might impact their future opportunities. I met young people eager to build a career by learning a trade but worried about the cost and availability of apprenticeships. I met doctors and nurses working tirelessly in our hospital system, telling me how much they need more funding for health services. I spoke with older Australians concerned about the cost of living and the quality of aged-care services.

These are the people who make up our Australia, and they are exactly who I am working to deliver for, as part of the Albanese Labor government. Our policies ease the pressure on families, support education for the next generation, strengthen our health system, back regional communities and ensure dignity and security for older Australians, because we believe in building a fairer, stronger future for everyone.

We've done this by delivering on our promised tax cuts for every taxpayer, helping you keep more of what you earn. We've opened 87 bulk-billing Medicare urgent care clinics, including one in Sturt Street in Ballarat, and I thank them for their excellent, excellent service. Many in our community, including my family, have needed to call on their services. We're investing an extra $1.7 billion to actually fund our public hospitals properly. We've started the largest housing build in Australia's history to get more people into a home of their own, including in my own electorate. We're wiping $3 billion of student HECS debt, saving the average person in my home town over $5,755. We've delivered free TAFE and I, like many people, have met young people and older people changing careers who have taken advantage of free TAFE. It is changing the economic opportunities for a generation, and it is unbelievably terrific to see.

We've provided $300 in energy bill relief for every household. We've delivered cheaper child care as well as pay rises for childcare and aged-care workers, and we've expanded paid parental leave. We've doubled the Roads to Recovery funding to $1 billion, meaning every single council in this country, including in and around my community, is now receiving double the amount of money from the federal government to fix our local roads. That is making a real difference across the community. We've increased the amount of money for black spots and for projects such as bridge renewals and heavy vehicle productivity. We're investing over $4 billion in women's safety initiatives, boosting and securing frontline services, delivering financial and housing support for women escaping violence, and delivering much-needed law reform. Just this week in parliament, we've protected the penalty and overtime rates of millions of Australian workers. Each of these policies has delivered and will continue to deliver real and lasting change for those in my electorate, but we know there is still more to do to build a better future for all Australians.

Throughout the election campaign, I worked with a number of local groups and organisations to commit to projects that will make a real and tangible difference for our community. These projects build on the commitments that we made in 2022 that are now well and truly coming to fruition.

I've spoken before in this place about Ballarat's history of institutional abuse and the way that it continues to echo through generations. For some time now, local survivors and supporters have been working together on the design of a memorial for our community—a place of healing, recognition and quiet reflection and a place in the heart of our city that acknowledges and honours all survivors of sexual abuse and assault. I was incredibly proud to commit $500,000 for the Continuous Voices Memorial in Victoria Park. This commitment from the Albanese government, together with previously announced support from the Victorian Labor government and the City of Ballarat, ensures that this worthy project will actually be built. This commitment assures survivors that we see you, we believe you and we support you. If the royal commission and recent events in my home town in Victoria, as well as in Queensland, have taught us anything, it's that we have to be eternally vigilant when it comes to child sexual abuse.

Ours is a proud and welcoming community and one where people support each other. The Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council operates out of an old high school building called the Ballarat Welcome Centre. It's a beautiful site. The building itself is pretty old, as a lot of buildings in Ballarat are. We're lucky that way, but it does mean that it is often hard to find facilities. We've pledged $500,000 to revitalise facilities for the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council to continue to do the amazing work that they do—welcoming migrants as well as showcasing our different cultures.

Our Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society—our Ballarat Show—has played an iconic role in Ballarat for over 170 years. The annual show is something many families look forward to, and it's always a brilliant day out. Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society doesn't just deliver the show, though. The organisation is run by a terrific group of volunteers, who play an integral role in supporting primary producers and showcasing agriculture through the region. They've big plans for the future of their new site and what the organisation can achieve, and we're pleased to back them with $1.5 million towards their new event and exhibition centre. It will be able to host the Ballarat Wine Show, agricultural workshops and private events, and, in essence, it'll ensure the sustainability of the showgrounds for years to come, having a stream of revenue to support the producers in our community.

We also committed just over $1.2 million for community soccer upgrades in Creswick and Daylesford. Maybe it started with the Matildas, or maybe it's because these two clubs are so welcoming and so inclusive, but both are seeing a huge influx of women and girls wanting to play soccer. Girls getting changed for soccer in cars or behind trees isn't okay, particularly if you're in Daylesford or Creswick now and you know how cold that can be—although if you're watching The Block, which is filming in Daylesford as we speak, it looks like it's sunshine every day. But that, unfortunately, is not always the case! Capping the number of girls who can play—which is what's actually been happening, because the facilities simply can't handle it—really isn't good enough. I know that there is lots of demand across communities, but our commitment has been to get these fantastic local clubs the facilities that they deserve, which will keep local kids active and connected.

About an hour south of Daylesford is the beautiful community of Teesdale, where we're also ensuring that everyone has the facilities that they need with the Don Wallace Rec Reserve, with a $1.5 million commitment to help deliver much-needed female-friendly change rooms, a new septic system, a new accessible toilet with baby-change facilities, power upgrades, and paths and landscaping to secure the site.

Finally, we've invested $3 million to establish a fit-for-purpose veterans, families and community hub in Wendouree. I'm really delighted that the City of Ballarat has made a premise available. It's one of the old council chambers from amalgamation that's really been sitting vacant for a long period of time. It is an ideal place for a veterans hub in our community, which has, sadly, been needed for a long time. It will be a place of connection and practical support for the service men and women to whom we owe so much and for their families and supporters. Thousands of veterans live in the Central Highlands region, and the benefits of this project will extend far beyond the boundaries of Ballarat. I've been speaking with the team behind the Ballarat Veterans Assistance Centre for many years now about this project. They are passionate and committed, and I believe in them and what they can achieve. I'm very proud to support this meaningful project, which will be delivered by the City of Ballarat and supported by the expertise of local government. Many thanks to Evan King—no relation to me, but the CEO of the City of Ballarat—and his council officers, who do such terrific work, often behind the scenes, to really work with communities in a way that delivers great outcomes for groups like the veterans community. I'm really excited to get to work and see the benefits that these projects will bring.

As I said at the start, alongside being the member for Ballarat, I'm very proud to have been reappointed by the Prime Minister as Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government for a second term. It is an enormous responsibility and one that I'm very passionate about, and I thank the Prime Minister for trusting me to continue to fulfil that role. Through my portfolio, we'll continue to deliver for all Australians, with a significant agenda before us. We're delivering historic reforms, including legislating an aviation consumer protection scheme for the first time and ensuring that Australians living with disability can access essential transport services with the dignity that they deserve. I recently went to one of the co-design workshops, where the aviation sector and my department are working closely with those with a disability to actually design the new aviation disability standards so that we can actually get a better outcome with the treatment of people who have a disability and who want to travel by air to go and do all of the things that we love and enjoy.

We're also driving productivity through the freight and supply chain, and we'll continue to do that work. We continue to deliver a record investment in infrastructure across the nation. That investment stretches right the way across the country, throughout our regions, our cities, our towns and our suburbs. I've been very focused in our first term to ensure that this pipeline of projects is focused on enhancing the productivity of our industries, improving safety of our local road users, connecting us with our loved ones and saving us time when we're travelling to and from work, and that those projects are across the nation. We have increased funding, in fact, for infrastructure. Whilst we had to do a review of the pipeline to ensure its deliverability, I can assure the House that, despite some of the rhetoric from those opposite that still seems to continue, not a single dollar has been cut from the infrastructure pipeline. In fact, it has actually increased under the Albanese Labor government. It's important to understand that, whilst projects may have not been proceeded with, no money has been cut. In fact, there have been increases to funding for infrastructure everywhere across the nation.

In Queensland, we're delivering our record $7.2 billion investment in the Bruce Highway. The Rockhampton Ring Road is proceeding well. For the Olympics infrastructure in Queensland, which will leave a lasting legacy, we've signed the new intergovernmental agreement with the deputy premier there just recently.

In New South Wales, the Western Sydney airport is pretty much complete. It's looking fantastic, and the aviation agreements are getting in place. I'm looking forward to that opening. In addition to that, we're delivering that critical road and rail infrastructure, the roads being Fifteenth Avenue, Mamre Road and Elizabeth Drive. The rail line is well underway, and I visited the station box just recently out at the airport.

In Victoria, we're funding and working very closely with the Victorian government on the Melbourne Airport rail link and unlocking the Sunshine Station precinct, which is really important for not just enabling airport rail but also untangling the network to enable future electrification of the Melton line. We're also delivering significant investments that are continuing with North East Link, Suburban Rail Loop and the Western Freeway. There is, of course, more to be done.

In Tasmania, we've delivered and opened the Bridgewater Bridge. We're investing in the Mornington Roundabout—that's finally getting done—and the Lyell Highway.

In WA, we're delivering METRONET, a new ferry expansion and the Brooking Channel Bridge, and I'm looking forward to going and opening alongside Minister Saffioti the Byford line extension shortly.

In South Australia, we are delivering one of the biggest road projects—I think North East Link might be the biggest one, but the Torrens to Darlington project is huge. We're also delivering the Mount Barker to Verdun interchange upgrades and funding investments in heavy vehicle productivity.

In the Territory, we're improving the Tanami, and in the ACT we're expanding the Canberra light rail. Again, these investments come at a time when it is really important to keep that pipeline of work going but also when we know there are significant capacity constraints that continue with our workforce and with supply chain, and we're continuing to do the work in that space as well.

Finally, I want to thank very much the people of Ballarat for putting their faith in me to represent them once more and to look forward to another term of delivery for them but also for the opportunity that they have given me to deliver not just for them but also for the entire nation.

Mr BUCHHOLZ (Wright) (16:33): In 2010, the electorate of Wright was first formed as a byproduct of a redistribution. I am the inaugural member for the seat of Wright, and it is a privilege. I feel immensely proud to be able to represent the good people of Wright. This is the fifth time I have been returned to this amazing building to be their voice, to carry their concerns, to come and lobby for the infrastructure that's required and to speak with our ministers and departments down here about the reduction of red tape for businesses so that mums and dads and families can end up with more money in their pockets and so that businesses can become more profitable.

This year, it is more likely that we will have another redistribution. The average electorate size is around 100,000 to 120,000. I am at over 140,000 people, and my next-door neighbour of Blair is very similar. I see the member for Forde in the room. Are you over as well?

Mr BUCHHOLZ: 135,000, for the benefit of Hansard.

So it is very likely that our boundaries will not look the same in a future redistribution, but we will work actively with the Australian Electoral Commission to secure what hopefully is the best for our local communities.

Our regions are growing. In terms of numbers, they are expanding, and with that come growing pains. The communities of Yarrabilba, Plainland and other communities right across my electorate are experiencing urban sprawl, as we're located just on the outskirts of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. As the entry points into the housing market are becoming more and more difficult, people are choosing to come and live in the regions and commute a little further because it makes sense from a price point perspective. There's another cohort as well. Those who have lived in the cities all their lives are taking the opportunity to downsize, cash out of high-value properties, come and buy a property, which is often superior with regard to its age, in my region and seek to retire. It is an absolutely picturesque region, from the Gold Coast hinterland and Tambourine Mountain to the Scenic Rim, which Lonely Planet says is one of the top 10 destinations in the world to visit.

We have some of the most exquisite restaurants. We have an eat local campaign that goes for an entire month, where restaurants in Brisbane and the Gold Coast that buy local produce from our community—pork, cheese or honey—bring their clients out and set up pop-up restaurants on the farm where the honey, cheese or pork is grown. There are long table lunches in the spring. They converse with the locals and the community. They bring out their chefs and their waitstaff, and they sell tickets. It's such a popular event. You have to be very quick to get into the pop-ups that you want; otherwise they disappear very quickly.

Agriculture is still the largest contributor to GDP in my electorate. This year, over in Withcott, a company that is probably not known to many people in Australia, Southern Cross Windmills, is celebrating its 150 years of manufacturing here in Australia, in my electorate. It's worth noting, given the current debate in the other house, that every single one of my original farms, the original blocks, would at some stage have had a windmill on them. When the windmills broke down, we went to solar pumps. That makes my growers and farmers the early adopters of renewable energy. They didn't do it because they were looking to save the planet; they did it because it was the most efficient and cheapest way to pump water for stock and domestic usage. We're very proud to have Southern Cross Windmills celebrating their 150th anniversary in our electorate.

To be returned to this place is a great privilege, and it's not something that you can do on your own. I am very humbled by the 400-plus volunteers that helped me get re-elected. I'm also very blessed that nearly all 400 of them will give their advice freely to you with their recommendations on what's best for the great region of Wright. Encompassed in my electorate, which is just under 8,000 square kilometres, are a number of state seats, and I want to acknowledge the state members who worked so hard alongside our campaign: Jon Krause, who was the deputy speaker in the Queensland parliament; Jim McDonald, who heads up most of the committees in Brisbane on infrastructure, policing and state development; Ros Bates, who is the Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training; and Linus Power, from Logan, who predominately sits within the electorate of Wright as well.

Encompassed in that geographical footprint are four shires. I have the Lockyer Valley shire, who boast to have the seventh most fertile valley in the world. When you come to Lockyer Valley, you can smell the soil and you can drive along and see the tapestry of different vegetable varieties when we're in full production of cauliflower, broccolini, carrot and lucerne. It is such an evocative view, and, because of the odour, you can nearly pick the vegetable as you drive past at 100 kilometres per hour. Often I just pull over and get out of my car to go and feel the quality of the soil and its moisture content. It really connects you to the amazing work that our local farmers and growers do to feed our country.

Unfortunately, in the Lockyer Valley at the moment, there are a lot of farmers that are choosing to back out of the high-value crops and grow lucerne because it's just too hard to do business with our large retailers. The cost of production is spiralling. It's becoming increasingly difficult to procure labour for family farms, and often mums and dads are encouraging the next generation to pursue a career that's not farming. The way we entice the next generation back to farming is to make it profitable, and then they'll return overnight. Tanya Milligan, who is the Lockyer valley local mayor, does an amazing job. She has served in the council for over 20 years, and she is a well-known identity. There's nothing in that community that she is not across, with her entire council.

Tom Sharp is the newly elected member for the shire of Beaudesert or Scenic Rim. It's aptly named because it is truly a scenic rim, as the rim part of the descriptor is the Great Dividing Range. The cracks around the Lamington National Park and Tamborine Mountain are truly spectacular events. We host a number of gliders who come down and take advantage of the thermal springs that are present because of the topography of the region. Tom is a tireless workhorse for the region. He's getting his feet under the desk and getting some real wins on the ground.

Over on the Gold Coast, Tom Tate is a well-known political identity on the landscape down there and an enormously big thinker when it comes to infrastructure. In the city of Logan, Jon Raven is filled with energy, and you walk away from every engagement with Jon enthused and energised. His commitment to the city of Logan is absolutely commendable.

I want to acknowledge in my area the amazing work that our sporting organisations do and just how important it is for our children to be involved in sports. It's too easy for a child to be armed with wi-fi and a phone or a PlayStation. I just think a child who competes in a team sport on a regular basis and attends training develops qualities and skills that advance their communication techniques, their confidence and their social skills to interact. So, to all of our sporting organisations, who potentially run on volunteer hours, I thank you for the work that you do.

I've got 86 different schools across my electorate, between high schools, private schools and state schools. Our teachers do an amazing job. Some schools can have up to five deputy principals, like Beaudesert State High School, which is an extremely large school, and I've got other small schools that might have 18 kids. When I make consideration for the Speaker of the House when he travels to schools to spread the good word, it is a difficult deliberation to try and work out which are the best schools for him to visit because I'm so blessed with the skill sets and the development of these kids.

We have an enormous number of service groups. I know they have these in the city as well, but our service groups and our volunteer base—you can tell the quality of your community by the quality of your community service persons and your volunteers, from your rural fire brigades to the people who'll go up and help clean the pool even though it's the council's. There are our churches. My mum, who is 83 this year, is part of mahjong. She's part of the church group, she's part of a walking group and a couple of day of the week she goes and does craft, and then somebody else roped her into going and doing something for another organisation that does women's packs for the Pacific islands and sends them off. I said, 'Mum, you're never home,' and she said, 'Well, I'm too busy.' I just love my mum. Occasionally, she might iron a few shirts for me. I love you very much, Mum!

I thank all of our business owners that put their houses up as collateral to go and borrow capital to employ the kids leaving school in our community. I thank them for what they do—for the risks that they take, can I say. All strength to your arms. Coming from a small-business background myself, I know the challenges but I also know the rewards the small-business sector can bring.

I want to acknowledge and say thank you to our agricultural shows. From Mudgeeraba to the smallest show we have, the Ma Ma Creek Exhibition, every one of the 10 that I have in my electorate has a different appeal. It's like trying to pick your favourite child. Every agricultural show has its strengths. Unfortunately, I'm not able to attend all of them every year, just by the nature of scheduling and the parliamentary commitments.

It's not my intention to bore the House with the amount of infrastructure that I have delivered in the last term, because I think that is our job. It is our job, as federal members, to do that. What I want to do with the time that's left is share my vision for the electorate. There is still work to be done—on the Mount Lindesay Highway, for example. As I said in my opening comment, my communities are growing, and with that come growing pains. People are choosing to come out, which means I've got more commuters on the road. They're potentially still working in Brisbane and choosing to live in the electorate of Wright. So, I'm committed to partnering with the state government and making sure that we're making the right funding decisions today and into the future to deal with those infrastructure problems—to address those pinch points which can make what should be a pleasant drive to work often frustrating, because of the time delays. There are a couple of spots on the Warrego Highway between Brisbane and Toowoomba that, when we have considerable rain in the Lockyer Valley, are no stranger to substantial flooding. There are a couple of places where the highway is blocked, and we need to upgrade one of the intersections so that Brisbane and our far west still have connectivity to markets and to the greater Brisbane area. We will be pursuing and doing early costings on what that project looks like with our state colleagues.

In Tamborine Mountain, as I mentioned before, there's a sporting association that has an incredible vision for their community, and sport is at the heart of it. They want to get a business plan done, so we'll work with them to try and find some money to assist them.

We will continue to pursue the roll out of telecommunication towers to try and fix the inefficiencies. We have come a long way. People will buy blocks for many thousands of dollars cheaper, and they'll think they've got a good deal. Then they'll come and say to me, 'The block doesn't have any power.' Well, that's why you bought it cheap, my friend. It may not have power and it may not have mobile phone reception. We will continue to negotiate with our telecommunications operators and telcos to address those inefficiencies as we grow as a community.

In Beaudesert, there's a motivated group within our community, particularly through the Beaudesert Chamber of Commerce, who are adamant that we work towards building our own police citizens youth club so that it can work with our children to prevent crime.

We'll continue to work on Mount Lindesay. There's an intersection near the Amberley Interchange for which we had $75 million on the table some years ago. Unfortunately, we were looking for a funding partner in the then Queensland Labor government, and they wouldn't have a bar of it, so our community missed out on the money that we had on the table, and that money was repurposed. So we will continue to try to find a solution for the great people who use that intersection—most likely the people who work onsite at Amberley.

Of course, there is the Bromelton precinct just outside Beaudesert. They're greenfield sites, and we have an enormous capacity. I will make a prediction today, without putting a timeframe on it, that there will be up to 10,000 permanent jobs in that precinct in the long term on hard-to-place industries. Our council is motivated to facilitate it. Our community is ready to harness it. We have the housing growth, the schools and the businesses motivated to see that precinct expand.

I'm sure there are those who will be offended by the fact that I have omitted them from my speech. That has only happened as a result of the restrictions on time, because, hopefully, all and sundry can get a sense of how passionate I am and how proud I am to be the federal member for Wright. The position that I hold in this place as the shadow minister for skills and training is a great privilege, and I cannot do that unless I am re-elected at each election by our wonderful people.

In closing in the last couple of seconds, I will say that our families pay an enormous sacrifice for the time that we spend away, both in the community and down here. I just want to thank my family and, on the public record, let them know that I am immensely proud of all them and I love them dearly. Thank you for the time.

Dr LEIGH (Fenner—Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) (16:52): It's a real pleasure to rise to speak in the address-in-reply debate following a remarkable election victory for the Albanese government. The Prime Minister spoke during the election campaign about the importance of kindness and about looking after the most vulnerable. That message resonated with the Australian community, and the number of seats that Labor now holds in the House of Representatives is higher than at any time in Australian history. The share of the seats is higher than at any time since 1943.

I was really honoured in my own electorate of Fenner to receive a 6.4 per cent swing, with 53.8 per cent of the primary vote and 72.1 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. I want to acknowledge the other candidates who ran in that election—Bola Olatunbosun, Dani Hunterford and Elizabeth Kikkert—and to thank each of the 97,000 voters who participated. You might think that I'm approximating when I say '97,000 voters'. No, I'm being exact. There were precisely 97,000 voters in the last election in the electorate of Fenner.

I want to thank my staff who worked on the campaign—my campaign manager, Kal Slater; my chief of staff, Nick Terrell; Blair Arnold; Bronwyn Asquith; Chris Davis, Cohen Elliott, Cullen Savle, Felicity Wilkins, Frances Kitt, Maria Neill and Meg Thomas—and my volunteers, including Christine Debu, Gerry Lloyd, Jo Corrigan, Naomi Nicholson and 93-year-old Trevor Smith. As the previous speaker did, I acknowledge the immense support that I receive from my family: my parents, Barbara and Michael Leigh; my wife, Gweneth Leigh; and my three wonderful boys, Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary.

Since being elected, the government has turned its focus to the issue of productivity. Productivity is a significant challenge in Australia, and the decade up to 2020 was the worst decade of productivity growth in the postwar era. The quarter in which our government came to office in 2022 saw a huge fall in productivity. Our government wants to boost productivity, because we recognise that this is the way we raise living standards and the way Australia can be more generous to those who are vulnerable here and overseas.

The Treasurer's economic reform roundtable was preceded by a range of productivity roundtables across the country—more than 40 in all—and I was pleased to participate in a number of those. On 13 August, the ACT Labor federal representatives—Katy Gallagher, David Smith, Alicia Payne and myself—held a roundtable focusing on how we boost productivity, resilience and budget sustainability. I would like to thank the attendees: Blake Conor Proberts, Devin Bowles, Abid Khan, Michael Thomson, Hala Batainah, Margot McNeill, David Marshall, Mandy Hill, George Kadmos, Adam Fennessy, Matthew Kadelaars, Markus Doherty, Janet Salisbury, Maddy Northam, Corinne Dobson, Anna-Maria Arabia, Andrew Meares, Greg Harford, Michael Matthews, Alison Percival, Frank Porreca, Garry Watson, Kathy Ehrmann, Michael Hamill, Keith Cantlie and Emma Sparks, as well as Bill Shorten, the vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra. The discussion was free-flowing and thoughtful, engaged in topics such as how the ACT can help to serve as the nation's social laboratory and how we can use our willingness to be at the cutting edge of reform to provide productivity lessons that benefit the nation as a whole.

On 7 August I drew together a range of economists from universities and think tanks to focus on the drivers of productivity growth. We met in Melbourne and held sessions on technology and human capital, investment and allocative efficiency. I want to thank the many attendees, including Bob Breunig, Kristen Sobeck, Jenny Gordon, Timothy Moore, Beth Webster, David Byrne, Miranda Stewart, Simon Loertscher, Cassandra Winzar, Flavio Menezes, Janeen Baxter, John Quiggin, Michael Brennan, Silvia Griselda, Brendan Coates, Aruna Sathanapally, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Richard Holden, John Piggott, Alison Preston, Janine Dixon, Leonora Risse, Peter Tulip, Guy Debelle, Alberto Posso, Ingrid Burford, John Asker—who joined us from UCLA—John Fingleton, Dan Andrews, Henry Sherrell and Saul Eslake. That conversation was the most wonkish productivity discussion I've participated in.

Among the ideas discussed were the importance of ensuring we get the very most out of assets, how we might use the electricity grid in a way that ensures we don't have to build too much excess capacity for those few hours a year when the grid is peaking out and how we make the very most of our transport network to ensure we don't need to build roads that are only at their maximum capacity for an hour a day. Also emphasised was the notion of investment and how we make smart investments and evaluate those investments using rigorous processes such as randomised trials, as we've sought to do through the establishment of the Australian Centre for Evaluation. I thank all of those economists from academia and 'think tank land' for the thoughtful way in which they engaged in that discussion. As a professor-turned-politician I very much see one of my roles in this place as being to act as a conduit from the world of ideas to the world of power and welcome those who have raised their ideas and will continue to be part of that conversation.

On 5 August, the Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek, and I held a productivity roundtable with charities and not-for-profits. The focus of that roundtable was to ensure how the not-for-profit sector can deliver more impact—not by compromising values or chasing metrics but through better systems, smarter incentives and greater capability. That roundtable explored how governments can support the sector with a focus on long-lasting, positive intergenerational change, including for First Nations people, people with disability and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. There was a discussion around evaluation and how we ensure that government programs are better evaluated, and a discussion around IT capability and the recognition that we need to do more in order to ensure that charities and not-for-profits are protected against cyber threats and are able to make the very most of the artificial intelligence revolution.

I want to thank Tim Liu, Cassandra Goldie, Sarah Davies, Maiy Azize, Barry Sandison, Harry Greenwell, Eleanor Williams, Travers McLeod, Armine Nalbandian, Heidi Peterson, David Crosbie, Stephanie Harvey, Robyn Clough, Mary Ann Geronimo, Ian Hamm, Julian Elliott, David Spriggs, Graeme O'Connor, Jason Tabarias, Jo Barraket, John Hartman, Marion Bennett, Kristy Muir, Krystian Seibert, Andrew Colvin, Nick Tebbey, Mel Parks, James Toomey, Saffron Zomer, Toby O'Connor, Tanya von Ahlefeldt, Rob Sturrock, Kristen Stevenson, Angus McFarland, Karen Douglas, Julia Keady, Robyn Mildon, Adrian Appo, Paul Conroy, Geraldine Menere, Tabatha Feher and Michael Carmody for their participation in that charities and not-for-profits productivity roundtable.

On 12 August, I was pleased to participate in a roundtable about productivity in Western Australia, organised by Tania Lawrence, alongside WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti. That discussion focused on the unique role of the resources sector within Western Australia but also on the importance of ensuring a diverse industrial base for Western Australia. Attendees contributed a wide range of ideas about technological uptake, boosting investment and how to ensure that Western Australians are ready for the jobs of the future. I was particularly impressed by the way in which Tania Lawrence had engaged so extensively with the attendees, spending at least half an hour with each of them beforehand and adeptly drawing together their contributions in order to make the most out of that roundtable.

All of these roundtable discussions fed into the Economic Reform Roundtable conducted here at Parliament House from 19 to 21 August. That roundtable was convened by the Treasurer, and the Assistant Treasurer and I were pleased to be in the room for the three days of the conversation. Twenty-nine hours sitting in a windowless room may not seem like everyone's idea of fun, but when you're talking about economic reform there is nowhere I would rather have been. I admire the way in which so many of the attendees took off their sectional interest hats and put on a national interest hat, engaging constructively on how we boost productivity and engaging in particular with those ministers who came into the room for particular parts of the discussion. We had Minister Tim Ayres; we had Minister Murray Watt; and, of course, we had Minister Clare O'Neil, who came in to discuss the significant challenges that she is grappling with in the housing sector and the vital work that she doing across local, state and territory governments in order to ensure that we build the houses we need.

Many members will be familiar with Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book Abundance, which emphasises the way in which a series of well-meaning regulations can together overlap to create a thicket of regulation which prevents us building the homes and the clean energy infrastructure and doing the research that advanced countries need. That philosophy is very much in accord with a government led by a prime minister who is the former infrastructure minister and who has a passionate commitment to seeing more homes built. While in the last parliament we fought the housing supply denialists to our left and right, we are getting on with the job of building—not only with the Commonwealth balance sheet but also in engaging with state, territory and local governments in order to ensure that the regulations don't stand in the way of construction. I'm sure Minister O'Neil will speak much more articulately than me in her contribution next.

The roundtable identified 10 areas of consensus: progressing work towards a single market to improve the federation; simplifying trade and tariffs; better regulation to cut the clutter; speeding up approvals in national priority areas; building more homes more quickly; making AI a national priority; attracting capital and deploying investment; building a skilled and adaptable workforce; creating a better tax system; and modernising government services.

We understand the importance of ensuring that government is more productive as well. The work we're doing through Minister Gallagher is vital, as is the better evaluation of government programs. In some sense, the challenge that we face with productivity is akin to the challenge we face on the sporting field. Sport doesn't face a trade-off between fairness and excellence, and neither should the economy.

Our objective as a government is to ensure that we lift everyone up and that we don't simply look at average measured productivity and worry it might go down if we move somebody from long-term joblessness into work. We recognise that it is the productivity of everyone that counts and that we need to have measures of productivity that better capture the vital work that is done in the care economy.

In closing, can I just acknowledge an important milestone that passed this year. The ANU Indonesia Project has turned 60. The ANU Indonesia Project is run out of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU and been a jewel in the crown for the ANU. I want to acknowledge Professor Budy Resosudarmo, the head of the ANU Indonesia Project, and the faculty who work within that project. Hal Hill has played a critical role in the ANU Indonesia Project throughout his career. He is somebody who has been a real mentor to me and to so many others within that project. Terima kasih banyak, Hal.

The project's 60th anniversary saw speeches given by Stephen Kennedy, Dennis Richardson, Lisa Cameron, Mari Pangestu, Chatib Basri, Bambang Brodjonegoro, Ross Garnaut and Penny Wong. It reflects the strong standing in which the ANU Indonesia Project is held and the vital work that ANU does in strengthening the relationship between Australia and Indonesia.

Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities) (17:07): This year Australians made a choice. They chose a future shaped by fairness, ambition and care. They chose Labor, and they rejected division and negativity. What an incredible victory we had on 3 May. Ninety-four Labor members now sit in this place, each of them bringing with eloquence the hopes and dreams of their communities, the strength of their convictions, and the promise and vision of a better Australia. I'm honoured to stand amongst them.

One of the very best experiences I know we've shared since the election has been hearing the first speeches of the 24 new Labor members in this place. I was so moved by every single one of these individual journeys of 24 people who have come to our chamber through very different pathways, through a variety of life experiences and from a plethora of backgrounds. They come together to sit with us in a Labor caucus that, really, for the first time, represents modern Australia. That's something that I am incredibly proud to be a part of.

I joined the Labor Party when I was 16 years old because I believed, as I now know, that Labor governments—particularly back-to-back Labor governments—change the lives of the people that we care about and reshape our country. This will be the 12th federal Labor government that Australia has had since the Second World War, and in that time our party—the one I am so proud to be a part of—has laid the foundations of our beautiful, great, modern country.

Medicare, paid parental leave, superannuation, land rights, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the accord, the National Disability Insurance Scheme—these achievements were not accidents. They did not happen by inevitability. They happened because brilliant Labor people got themselves elected to parliament, stood up for what they believed in and reshaped our nation. We now have the opportunity over the coming three years to do it again. We have an amazing opportunity to build on that legacy. We're going to govern with purpose, and we are going to deliver for the people who placed their trust in us.

I sometimes think that people outside of politics may not realise the complexity, the difficulty and the amazing feat of running a campaign in your local community. Our campaign in Hotham was built on the shoulders of volunteers who gave us their weekends, their evenings and their hearts. The Hotham branch members, in particular, were the beating heart of this operation. We could not have done it without you, comrades. We are so grateful for your efforts. Deputy Speaker Mascarenhas, I know you would have seen the same thing in your community of Swan.

The commitment, the grit and the grace that my community showed me—the work they did with me—got us to a point where Hotham is now the safest Labor seat in Victoria. I can tell you, we have lots of ups and downs in politics, but that endorsement from my community means everything—that the people I represent in this chamber voted in such numbers to return our government to its position to be able to continue the good work that is improving their lives.

I want to come back to our Hotham branch members, because I'm thinking back to January, when it all really began in earnest. We knew it was an election year, we gathered together at the Oakleigh RSL and we asked our community to get involved, mainly branch members but not all of them. We asked people to step up and to be part of something bigger than themselves and make that big contribution to their local neighbourhood. We did train stations throughout January and then all the way up to that epic election day on 3 May. It was four months of hard work and probably a year of preparation before that.

We had hundreds of volunteers helping us out—giving out flyers, phone banking, doorknocking and letterboxing. I can't thank everyone individually, but I want to give a few special mentions. To Andrew Williamson, Mark Giles and Mark Harding, three marvellous south-east Melbourne men: thank you for your leadership, your expertise, your tireless support. To our phenomenal yard sign team—and Deputy Speaker you know, as I do, the work that goes into identifying the sites all over the community where you're going to have your yard signs and making those yard signs, putting them out and then taking them down again after the election—Alan Ide, Peter Wenborn, Gregory Neal and Dolphin Sharma: thank you so much for your efforts across Hotham.

We had a lot of phone banking going on, but I want to mention by name Phillip Graves, Amuna Ebenezer, Sue Rocco and Olivia Carroll. Thank you so much for the work you did connecting us into our community and talking to my constituents about the work that was being done.

As always in Hotham, we have incredible support from our proud multicultural communities. I am very lucky in Hotham to live and work in a community where most of my constituents either were born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. I want to thank our fantastic Vietnamese community—Dr Kimson Vu and SEMVAC—for running phone banks nearly every day, as well as the AUMSAI Sansthan Temple for providing lunch to all our booth captains, as well as our wonderful local councillors, including Nicky Lou and Richard Lim, and the Cambodian Association and their president, my dear friend Youhorn Chea. Thank you so much for your support and leadership.

To Jane Rollason, Glenda Garde, Pat Dillion, Anne Barker, Joy Graves, Paul Klisaris, Hadi Saab, Lana Formosa, and Luca Ragni: thank you for going above and beyond; I will never forget your efforts.

Behind every great campaign is an amazing office, and I want to acknowledge my electorate office staff in this last term. To Natalie Durkin, Lachlan Newman, Jane Foley, Natalia Genovese, Sophie Federico, Elijah Oakford, Dylan Kumar and Emma McGrath-Cohen: what an amazing team we were. I love you guys so much. Thank you so much for your kindness, determination and public service.

Election day was absolutely epic. We had hundreds of volunteers staffing booths, we had some experienced branchies who were showing that leadership role and we had first campaigners alongside them, and I hope everyone who came along for this ride with us will be back there again in a few years time. With this amazing momentum, I'm really excited about what we can achieve next election.

Being the member for Hotham is the absolute privilege of my life, and none of us come to this chamber without the support of our families. I want to thank Fee for her help and for the care that she shows to our whole family. We would not survive without you, Fee. I want to thank my mum, Anne O'Donovan, who taught me everything I know about life, really, and she's always at the end of the phone when Brendan and I are desperate for a date night—thanks, Mum. To my beautiful kids, Elvis, Louis and Greta: the joy these three bring me is just incredible. They're the best. And to my partner, Brendan, who is my best friend and the finest person I know: a life being married to a cabinet minister can be pretty thankless and unpleasant at times, but he believes in what I do, I believe in and support what he does, and I love him from the bottom of my heart.

I want to mention some specific groups around Hotham who deserve a little bit of recognition in this parliament. Hotham is a place of extraordinary diversity. It is just amazing. If you have not come and visited us in Melbourne's beautiful great south-east, you need to get down there. We have something from every part of the world, the best of every part of the world, represented in our community. Around dinner tables in Hotham, you'll hear Tamil, Khmer, Mandarin, Dari, Greek, Hindi, Vietnamese and pretty much every other language there is in the world, and they're spoken with pride. My community is home to temples, churches, mosques, market gardens and manufacturing floors. It is a place where Australia's fantastic story of opportunity is being written every single day. In Hotham, difference is not just tolerated; it's celebrated, and it's the very best thing about living in our beautiful area.

We have a large and very important Indian community that's growing in my electorate of Hotham, and I want to say namaste to my beautiful constituents—in particular those from the Sri Venkata Krishna Brundavana temple in Murrumbeena, who recently hosted me for the most amazing visit. It was beautiful, and I wish I had the capacity to go back there every single week with my family. The temple leaders, Ashwin Bindu, Ranesh Rao and Raj Saini, are incredible leaders in our community. This is a community that really got going around 2015, when the priest house was first established. We have seen devotion in this particular community grow massively across Melbourne, and when I visited recently I got to experience this teeming joy and energy of celebration around spirituality. I just wish I could paint the picture for you: a suburban street and a community of hundreds of people gathering together to celebrate, to support each other and to build and support a great life in our country. It just made me so damn proud to be Australian, and I absolutely loved it. So I want to acknowledge that community and thank them for welcoming me so beautifully. I can't wait to come back and visit you again very shortly.

Hotham is a place of service, and I want to acknowledge some outstanding individuals from my electorate who were appropriately recognised in this year's Australia Day awards. Jim Magee OAM, my old friend from Bentleigh East, was a very long-serving councillor and a fierce advocate for all-abilities access and for protecting services for the vulnerable. I think we've got a Jim Magee in lots of parts of Australia, and we're lucky to have them. Jim is one of those amazing people who is, in every walk of his life, making a contribution and trying to help people step up and get involved, whether it's in sport or education or aged care or any of the other things that he's passionate about. He's championed so much good that's happened in our local area, and he remains a staunch supporter of access to sports and recreation for people of different abilities, and also of growth and prosperity in Hotham. Jim, mate, I'm so pleased for you. Congratulations. It is very well deserved.

We also honour Senior Sergeant James Egan APM of Bentleigh East, who passed away in November 2024. He has an amazing story. He was a proud Bangerang and Gunditjmara man. James was—would you believe it?—the longest-serving Aboriginal employee in Victoria Police. He stayed in that organisation. He was a mentor. He was a trainer. He was a change-maker who helped shape the next generation of officers and improve cultural safety right across the force. It was an appropriate and really important moment for our community to celebrate the work of this remarkable individual, who received an award on Australia Day

We remember Adam McKay OAM of Oakleigh, who was, of course, the founder of Helping Hoops. This is a charity that revolutionised access to basketball for children and young people. Adam's legacy lives on in the thousands of lives that he touched through sport and inclusion. I pay tribute to his work today, and I'm so pleased that the Australia Day Council was able to give that appropriate recognition to him on Australia Day.

In this new term of the Albanese government, we're delivering real investment for the people of Hotham. One of those big investments that we were able to announce during the election campaign was almost $4 million to create equitable, inclusive and accessible playing fields and parks across the electorate—and this includes a few local projects that I'm very excited to champion: We've got Bailey Reserve in East Bentleigh, which will receive new facilities for women and girls, supporting clubs like the Glen Eira Moorabbin Softball Association, or GEMSA. I have to tell you about GEMSA. What an amazing group of women. I had so much fun with Minister Wells going out and announcing the grant for their organisation. I don't think I've ever felt the warmth of inclusion at the level I felt at this sporting club before. I spoke to so many women who are involved in the club who, frankly, have had some troubles in other parts of their lives. This club was that place where they felt at home, where they felt loved and accepted for whoever they were. GEMSA, I think you're amazing, and I'm so pleased to be able to support you, so let's get that grant out the door and your beautiful new club rooms built. We're also going to see investments at Ross Reserve in Noble Park that will see female inclusive change rooms and upgrades to athletic tracks. We've got Jack Edwards Reserve, which is coming online pretty soon. We've got Princess Highway Reserve in East Oakleigh and Namatjira Park in Clayton South, which will also receive funding, and we're pretty excited to see what that's going to mean for accessibility, safety and inclusion in parks right across my electorate.

I want to mention one piece of Hotham that I haven't talked about yet. I am so lucky to represent the heart and soul of Melbourne's Greek community. In fact, I get to not only represent Oakleigh in the federal parliament but live in Oakleigh myself. I really can't put into words the warmth and the love with which this community embraces not just me but my family—my kids, my husband and my mum. It's amazing to live amongst Greek Australians. This is a culture that celebrates food, art, philosophy, politics, caffeine, drinking and dancing. So, I'm just like, 'Tick, tick, tick; this is fantastic; I love it!' This community is absolutely brilliant. It was wonderful during the election campaign to be able to work with this community on a really big contribution that our government will be making to what is really the centre of this community—the Greek Orthodox Church of Oakleigh Sts Anargiri and Oakleigh Grammar, which is the school that sits next door. These are two absolute institutions of Greek Melbourne. They perform incredibly important roles for our Greek community. It was fantastic, during the election, to be able to announce $4.5 million to back culture and inclusion through the construction of a Greek cultural club in Oakleigh. I want to thank Chris Damatopoulos and Mark Robertson for their absolutely impeccable advocacy around this project. This is going to mean a transformative difference to our ability to pass on that incredible Greek culture to the next generation. We have a vision together of a community centre where we have older people doing computer classes, young people learning Greek dancing, young people learning the Greek language and people who are that bit older finalising and putting those finishing touches on their grasp of an ancient language. This is a really exciting development for the community. I want to thank those two leaders, and I also want to mention our school captains, Alexander Korlos and Natasha Kaniadakis. The students at this school are just incredible. I loved visiting the school during the campaign. I'm there really frequently, and they're just a bunch of legends, so thanks so much, guys.

Another important area of contribution that our government has is to support our local Ukrainian community. Our government has led the country in the strongest possible condemnation of the illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We continue to work at a diplomatic level to do whatever we can to support the Ukrainian government. But I want to acknowledge the extraordinary Ukrainian community that we have here in Australia. I'm very lucky to have a Ukrainian community centre in my electorate, in Noble Park, and it was fantastic to be able to announce an investment of $225,000 during the election. That money will restore and enhance the Ukrainian community centre in Noble Park. They are a fantastic community. They were fantastic even before the invasion, but now this community is welcoming, supporting and providing that beautiful love and support to Ukrainians who have fled the war. So it's fantastic to be able to provide that practical support to this community, and I thank the community for welcoming me to their art show a couple of months ago.

Thank you so much for the time of the parliament to talk about some of these critical issues in my electorate. I can't wait to contribute more as we work together in this term ahead.

Ms THWAITES (Jagajaga) (17:44): It's an absolute privilege and an honour to be here once again as the member for Jagajaga, and I am sincerely grateful and humbled to once again be trusted by my community to represent them in this parliament. I've said many times that I love our community. It is the place where I grew up, and it's now the place where I'm bringing up my own children with my husband, Daniel. We absolutely know firsthand just how special our part of Melbourne is. The people who live there, the community groups, the parks, the creeks—there is a strong sense of belonging and connection in Jagajaga, and it makes it a wonderful place to call home. Every day I absolutely take pride in the opportunity to be our community's voice here in this parliament.

I was really pleased with the conversations I was able to have with community members during the election campaign. A lot of people spoke to me, both about what they could see our government had achieved in our one term in government and also about the progress they wanted to see come next—about the work still to do. There was a marked difference in those conversations I had in the community between the sense of trust they had in a Labor government to deliver on that work still to come and what was being put forward by our Liberal opponents—which really was an agenda based around negativity, an agenda that clearly wasn't well thought through, particularly if we think about their main plan of a nuclear future for Australia. It's an agenda which showed they really don't understand the lives of modern Australians and of people in communities like Jagajaga. I'm thinking here particularly of the way they wanted to limit things like working from home. It was clear to me when I was talking to people, whether it was at early voting centres or when I was knocking on doors or standing outside the local shops, that what they valued were the things that Labor governments do, and they were trusting us to get on and do those things and to build for the future. I am really looking forward to doing that work in the second term, to staying focused on our goals and to making sure that we continue to achieve, not just for Jagajaga but, of course, for the entire country.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I'm giving this speech today, the Ngunnawal and the Ngambri people, and I pay my respect to their elders past and present. I also want to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land Jagajaga stands on. Theirs is a deep and ongoing connection to land, water and sky, which is absolutely inseparable from that place, and I again pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging in Jagajaga. In this second term, I look forward to getting on with work to continue that connection, to continue to close the gap and to continue to make sure that we are helping First Nations people in our country to be as strong a part of our community as possible. I know it is something that many people in Jagajaga are passionate about, and they talk to me about it.

The Birrarung, the Yarra River, forms a natural border around my electorate. It runs from Ivanhoe all the way through to North Warrandyte. And, certainly, that waterway and other significant waterways such as the Darebin Creek, the Banyule Flats and Plenty Gorge are an important part of Jagajaga. People in Jagajaga care deeply about these places and about our environmental legacy. I can absolutely say that one of the main issues raised with me during the election campaign, and now, by people in Jagajaga is the need for continued action on climate change. There is a real understanding in my community of how environmental protection, emissions reduction and climate resilience action all come together.

What was very clear at the last election and what is increasingly clear now, as those opposite continue to debate whether they will actually ditch a commitment to net zero, is that Labor is the party of climate action. We have made tackling climate change a top priority. Again, that is exactly what communities like mine in Jagajaga expect of a government that understands the challenges that we are facing and that understands what this country needs to be doing to provide a safe and secure future with good jobs—not just for people now, but for our children and for their children's children. As a government, we are delivering on our emissions reduction targets. It was really encouraging to see the announcement from the minister this week that emissions are falling and that we are on the right track—with a lot more to do! That's why we are making major investments in renewable energy. We are improving and protecting the places that we love. We're also, this term, putting a renewed focus on expanding our climate adaptation and resilience work, on making sure that communities like mine are supported to live with the effects of what we already see from climate change. That will be critical right around the country.

Very clearly at the last election Australians rejected the divisive nuclear push that we know was steeped in climate denialism from those opposite. Every time they put that policy forward, it wasn't a policy about debating a better way forward for Australia; it was a policy about denial. Again, we see this very clearly now with the motion before the parliament to drop net zero. The sense of security and of certainty for Australians that we now are committed to climate action and that that will continue under this government is really important.

In Jagajaga, just like around the country, we are rolling out community batteries with support from this government. That obviously supports the many solar rooftops that I see as I travel around the electorate. People in my community understand that batteries are not only a good way to help tackle climate change but also a good way to bring down their bills and reduce electricity costs. I know they will continue to be very popular in Jagajaga. Recently—in fact, just before the start of the election campaign—I helped open the Bellfield community battery, which our government has helped fund. Again, this work is about taking pressure off the grid and supporting local people to reap the benefits of the energy transition.

Another key issue during the election campaign in Jagajaga, and right around the country, was Medicare and our health system. Labor will always be the party that protects Medicare. We understand that it is the cornerstone of our health system. We know locals want it to be there for them when they need it—for themselves, for their kids and for our entire community. I was so pleased to be able to open the Heidelberg Medicare Urgent Care Clinic during our first term of parliament, and I've seen the huge impact it's had on the community—providing that place that people can go to when they need urgent care, rather than having to go up the road to the Austin Hospital and wait many hours in emergency. They're able to go to the clinic, be seen and have certainty. I know it's also taking pressure off the Austin emergency department, so it's appreciated there.

I was pleased that, in this last campaign, we also committed—together with the member for McEwen—to secure a new Medicare emergency clinic for Diamond Creek and surrounds. I know that will be beneficial to people living in the northern end of my electorate. It was fantastic to be able to do that with the member for McEwen. I'm very pleased he is back in this parliament so we can continue to work together to serve our communities. In fact, today I met with the Northern Councils Alliance with the member for McEwen, the member for Scullin and some other colleagues, to work together across Melbourne's north to continue building the services we need.

Another part of election campaigns that I always enjoy is engaging with my local sporting clubs. These play a huge role in bringing people together locally and in providing both young people and older people places to keep fit and engaged. I was so pleased to support the Heidelberg West Football Netball Club with an $814,000 grant for female-friendly facilities, including proper changerooms, showers and toilets. I know these facilities will be much appreciated and make a huge difference to the women and girls playing at that club. Congratulations to all of them.

I'm absolutely thrilled that we will be delivering $2 million to support Banyule City Council to build a new netball facility and upgrade the Ivanhoe Park Croquet Club. These investments really help promote active, inclusive communities, the netball encouraging more women to participate in and play sport and the croquet club encouraging people of all abilities, including older people, to be involved. I always enjoy my visits to the Ivanhoe Croquet Club. They are a very lively bunch. They've given me tips. I'm not very good yet, but I hope that I have the opportunity to continue to go back and improve my skills.

We are continuing to support community infrastructure more broadly, including at Shelley Park and Heidelberg Heights, which is getting a brand new pavilion and clubrooms through an investment we made during the last term. I'm really looking forward to seeing it become a new hub for local sport and community events. This does come, I think, at an important time for that growing population in that area of Jagajaga. At Eltham Lower Park we've opened a new off-leash dog park, and the sporting pavilion there will be upgraded, which will help the local lacrosse, croquet and cricket clubs. There is lots going on on the sporting and community front in Jagajaga, which I'm very pleased about.

One of the main focuses for our government this term is of course housing. We know that right across Australia we have challenges when it comes to housing. It is still very difficult, particularly for people to enter the market. We don't have enough social and affordable housing. We are trying our best to tackle this, obviously, after many years of those opposite neglecting it—neglecting to have a housing minister for most of their time in government, in fact. Again, one of the frequent conversations I had with people in Jagajaga during the election campaign was about how difficult it is to get into the housing market. Many people who were having this conversation with me were approaching it from a situation of generational inequality, talking to me about how they were worried for their children or their grandchildren and also how they want their children to be able to live in the vicinity of them. Again, in many parts, Jagajaga is an expensive place to buy a house, and people want to be able to live near families, to live near the places they love and where they grew up.

So I am really pleased that our government has announced that we're expanding the opportunity so that people can access the dream of homeownership with a five per cent deposit and that it will come into effect from 1 October this year. In Jagajaga we are also delivering new social and affordable housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund and the Social Housing Accelerator. In Heidelberg West we've teamed up with the state government to rebuild the Bell-Bardia estate. This will mean 104 homes in the area delivering high-quality, modern housing. It's on a site that previously had 94 homes which were not really fit for purpose anymore, so they were demolished some years ago. I am really glad we are getting these new houses built on that site, and I know that it will be really important for the 3081 community.

Across Ivanhoe, Heidelberg, Rosanna and Greensborough, 642 new homes are being built through the HAFF. We have just funded 25 additional homes under the second round of the HAFF, in Bellfield. These are significant investments in Jagajaga and in our communities. Again, I'm really pleased with how our community has embraced this opportunity and seen the need for more housing and particularly more social and affordable housing in our area. It will support women and children leaving family violence. It will support First Nations people. It will mean that key workers can live close to things like the Austin Hospital, so that's going to be really important. I look forward to continuing to see those houses being built and hopefully visiting some of them fairly shortly for an opening.

I talked before about intergenerational equality. Again, when I talk about those conversations about the future that people had with me during the election campaign, this idea of how we're making sure we do build a country that delivers a better life for our children and their children was one they were talking with me about. So I'm very pleased that one of the first acts of our government in this new session of parliament was to introduce our bill to wipe 20 per cent off all student debt. I've already heard from many people in Jagajaga about what a real difference this has made to them, particularly when it comes to things like getting into the housing market, so that's fantastic. Obviously we have a commitment to not just wiping debt but also helping young people to get the skills and education they need. We've made free TAFE permanent, because it is essential to skills development and opportunity. In my community, that means that students at Greensborough and the west Heidelberg Melbourne Polytechnic are already benefiting. We are investing in the future workforce though a new national TAFE centre of excellence for housing construction at west Heidelberg Melbourne Polytechnic, which will be fantastic. That's a $50 million investment which will tackle skills shortages, speed up housing delivery and support more sustainable construction, all while creating strong pathways into secure local jobs. It was great to visit that site with Minister Giles and talk with some of the students studying there and also some of the educators about the important work they are doing there.

Another great strength of Jagajaga is our diversity. I'm proud to represent one of the largest Somali Australian communities in the country. I was pleased to secure further funding for Himilo Community Connect, which does outstanding work in education, youth leadership and engagement within the community. Supporting community cohesion, interfaith understanding and cultural celebration has been a focus of the great work they are doing. Together with the member for Cooper, I was also proud to support the Darusalam Community Centre, helping to ensure that it remains a safe and welcoming gathering place. Thank you to community leaders Abdallah Ahmed and Ishmael Gabo. To Abdiaziz Farah, Pam Burley and Yusuf Oman: you and your teams are doing the work on the ground in the community, and I thank you for your collaboration—and all of those in the Somali Australian community who are helping us build a more inclusive and connected society.

There are a lot of thankyous to make after a campaign, and I want to thank all of the people who made our local campaign possible. In Jagajaga, we ran a grassroots campaign, which was local, positive and progressive, and it focused on what mattered to our community. I'm so grateful to every person who gave their time and energy and for their belief in the work we do. To my incredible volunteers and branch members: thank you. Whether you joined us in the morning at the train stations or you were making phone calls in the evenings, there every day at prepoll or helping behind the scenes, I could not have done this without you. To Judy, Jennie, Garry, Rhonda, Chris, Jason and all our local party leaders and volunteers: thank you for your trust and support.

To my state colleagues Anthony Carbines, Colin Brooks and Vicki Ward: it's always such a pleasure to have your support and to work with you on behalf of our communities, and I'm looking forward to standing alongside you in your coming election campaigns. To my wonderful staff—to David, my campaign manager; Simone; Alex; Kate; Ziggy; Izzy, who's here in the chamber; and Carla: you all worked so hard and you delivered for our community, so thank you.

Of course to my family—to Daniel, Harriet and Gilbert, these campaigns do take a lot and put a toll on families. I could not do it without any of them. It was great to see Harriet, who's now seven years old, take quite an interest in this campaign. She's definitely on team red. She was quite pleased and proud to see her mum's face up around the electorate. I don't think that will be the case if I get the chance to run for election when she is 10 years old, so I also enjoyed having that moment. But a huge thanks goes to them and to my parents, to my brothers and their partners, and the whole family who wrapped around us.

Also a final thankyou from me goes to the Australian Electoral Commission. We are really privileged in this country that we have an independent commission that is dedicated to running our elections in a way that is free, fair and transparent, and I know that that work is not always easy. We particularly see this in local campaigns, and we did see in this last local campaign, particularly when it came to prepolling, that the environment can get heated. There can be some very difficult demands put on AEC staff, who are working to deliver a free and fair election. I think that the way the AEC is able to deal with those demands, with the professionalism shown by its staff, is exemplary. We absolutely must make sure that we protect that system and that Australians do feel confident and proud to vote and to participate in our democracy. Thank you to the AEC, and I look forward to hopefully doing it with them all again. In the meantime, I look forward to delivering for Jagajaga during this campaign.

Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (18:03): It was an absolute pleasure in the last sitting to listen to all the first speeches from the new MPs. They were very impressive and from a wide variety of backgrounds. It was humbling to hear of the skills, experiences, attributes and backgrounds that this new cohort, the class of 2025, brings to us. It's going to make our parliament better. We're going to make better decisions based on that broad range of experience, as the will of the Australian people was shown.

Of course, there are some outstanding members of the class of 2022, and they continue to impress. My classmates from the class of 2016 and all members of our caucus are united in our vision to deliver for the Australian people. Already in this term we've seen so many examples of that, as we deliver on the commitments that we've made to the Australian people over the last five or so years and in the lead-up to the elections. We maintained those commitments and delivered in the first term, and now we are delivering in the second term.

But, of course, listening to all the first speeches does cause one to reflect on your own first speech. I delivered mine in the main chamber nine years ago almost to the day. In a photo I've got of that delivery is Warren Snowdon, the old man, the then member for Lingiari, who's been capably replaced nowadays by my friend and colleague Marion Scrymgour, the member for Lingiari now. Warren was in that photo and was a great assistance and mentor to me, and he continues to assist the Northern Territory and Australia in our mission for advancing reconciliation and developing the north. He's also very passionate about his veterans work; he was the veterans' affairs minister.

I'm very honoured today to have another veteran, my brother Dan, join us in the Fed Chamber. Dan served in the Australian Army for about 28 years in the infantry and in a variety of roles, but a lot of his work was with both NORFORCE—our Indigenous First Nations soldiers—and the people of Timor-Leste. I refer to my time in both of those places, serving with those cohorts of both Australian and Timor-Leste soldiers, and it very much enriched my life. But a lot of that experience—and a lot of the reason I'm here now in this place, representing the people of Darwin and Palmerston and serving as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and Northern Australia—is down to my brother Daniel. So I wanted to publicly acknowledge that and put it in the Hansard forever and a day that I really appreciate all the support that you've given me over the years, brother.

In my first speech, I spoke about the great privilege of representing the people of Solomon, the northern capital of Australia, where we've got people from over 100 countries that have been generously welcomed to the ancient lands of the Larrakia people and other groups of First Nations people in the north of Australia, who have not only their ancient connection to land but also their 300 to 500 years of relationships with people from other surrounding islands in what is now called Indonesia. Those trading relationships go back a long way, and that relationship with Indonesia and, certainly, Timor-Leste continues to be part of my life but also my service to the nation.

I'll touch on that briefly in the time I've got available. As a proud Territorian, I always tell my colleagues—they're all pretty aware of it; there's no need to bang on and sell the Territory, because everyone's pretty clear about how incredible the place is. I love this territory too, as you do, Deputy Speaker Payne. I spent four years here—three years in the Australian Defence Force Academy and then one year in the Royal Military College, Duntroon. I did came back for some postgrad study later on as well. It's the place that my children call 'the cold place', but they love it all the same. They've got cousins down here. They come down here infrequently.

But my heart has always been in the Northern Territory, ever since Dan and I and the other six kids, and Mum and Dad, headed around Australia in a HiAce van. Mum and Dad took us out of school for about three months and we travelled around Australia, and that's the first time we went to the Territory. I really fell in love with it at that time—Uluru, up the Stuart Highway to Litchfield and Kakadu, and rolling into Darwin. When we think back, it was only 10 years or so after Cyclone Tracy. But the seed was certainly sown on that trip around Australia. A lot of us had fallen in love with the Territory a bit. Dan served there with NORFORCE in the Army, one of our sisters nursed there, our youngest brother worked as a teacher in both Arnhem Land and the Red Centre, another brother has been a Territory firefighter for 16 years, and Mum and Dad still love coming up to see their kids and also their grandkids. So there's a great love affair not just for those Goslings who went on that trip around Australia and made Darwin or the Territory home but for all the rest of the family as well.

I spoke in that first speech about the things that built me in terms of my life experience and my desire to be part of the leadership of the nation that I love so much. I see serving in this place, the federal parliament, as an extension of that service in the military and for non-government organisations. I will briefly touch a couple of those things. I met my wife, Kate, on Anzac Day in Dili. We were both living in Darwin, but for different reasons we were working in Timor-Leste at the time, and we met playing two-up in Dili. So I never forget the anniversary of our meeting; it's Anzac Day.

Recently Kate and I took our two kids, Sally and Frank, over to Timor and we did some diving. Whenever I talk about the tourism potential of Timor, it's not only because it's so beautiful and so different to the Top End of Australia; it's also that you can just marry them up. If you go over to Timor-Leste, you stop in Darwin on the way over. If you come to Darwin to get out to Kakadu or whatever, consider the one-hour flight to get over to Timor-Leste. It's a beautiful place, and it's a really practical way that we can help our good neighbours in their development. Certainly their democracy has been very resilient. They've had five rounds of parliamentary and presidential elections now. It was good to catch up with a lot of friends that my brother Daniel and I served with when we were with the Defence Cooperation Program in Timor-Leste.

Twenty years later—last week—representing the defence minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, I attended the 50th anniversary of the Timor-Leste armed forces, which was a great event. They're obviously very proud of their independence and their defence of their sovereignty. It had been 20 years since I met with a lot of those Timorese generals, and a funny thing that they and I reflected on was that none of us looked any different from how we did 20 years ago! Maybe we do a bit! Maybe we're a bit slower than we were back then. But I was able to catch up with old friends who still have that real desire to strengthen the relationship not only between our military and their military but also between our two countries. The relationship between Timor-Leste and Indonesia is also fantastic these days, on a number of levels, and it's good to see that that reconciliation process has been so successful. I look forward to spending some time here tomorrow with the Indonesian defence minister. He's visiting the parliament.

It is 50 years. A lot of things happened at that time—1974 and 1975. There are some big anniversaries. One of those is the anniversary of the Timorese refugees arriving into Darwin and the compassion and solidarity that we showed with them because of, in many ways, the solidarity and compassion that was shown to our Australian soldiers in World War II by the Timorese.

In the veteran space, I continue to work with the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to roll out the recommendations that came from the royal commission, which I've worked very hard to see put into place with many others, including the families of those whose sons or daughters had unfortunately made the decision to die by suicide. I think we are making good progress. In my electorate, we had a recent veterans conference. It was excellent. It was a veterans and families conference, because families are so important. That was excellent. The Scott Palmer Services Centre is now with the Salvos as part of a federally funded program where the Salvos will be purchasing some units that we will be making available for veterans if they become homeless or at risk of homelessness. So that's something that I'm very passionate around. I want to give a shout out to Colin Heard, the single remaining World War II veteran in the Northern Territory. He was in the Air Force as a pilot in World War II, and I send my regards to him on the 80th anniversary of the end of that awful conflict.

I've been very pleased to get out and see some of the people I served with in NORFORCE and certainly with a northern Australia lens and a defence lens. The best thing we can do with young people who are not sure what they want to do is cadets, the Army Indigenous Development Program, the Navy Indigenous Development Program and servicing NORFORCE 51 Far North Queensland Regiment and the Pilbara Regiment. They remain our eyes and ears throughout northern Australia, and I would certainly recommend to young people in the north that I come across, whether they be Indigenous or not, to consider service, whether it be reserve service or full-time service.

I was very thankful—and I'm conscious of time; there are other issues in my electorate that I'll reflect on at future opportunities. But the Army is doing fantastic things in Indigenous communities in a program called AACAP. That's where the National Indigenous Australians Agency joins with Army and builds infrastructure in communities. Just recently, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, was there in Gapuwiyak, a place very familiar to us in the Arnhem squadron of NORFORCE. They built a brilliant new community and arts centre, and that will drive local employment. And that's what the best projects are—where we have our First Nations brothers and sisters in the workforce, whether it be building roads, just making their art, which is incredible, and having opportunities to get their product to market, working as rangers, protecting country, or working with the Defence Force. There are fantastic job opportunities in health as well and in doing a lot of the tasks that they naturally do in the community, such as child care and aged care.

As I said, 1974-75 was a significant time for Darwin, and one of the reasons for that is that 50 years ago, on Christmas Eve, Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin with a big loss of life. I'll be forever thankful to the Prime Minister and the Governor-General and the Chief of Defence Force, for that matter, Admiral Johnston, who actually was a young boy in Darwin when Cyclone Tracy hit. To have those three esteemed people from our nation attend and give up their Christmas morning with their families to be there with us in Darwin to mark the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy was very important to the people of Darwin and the survivors and to our whole community.

I'm very proud to have achieved 40 Commonwealth funded medical places so that our university, Charles Darwin University, is going to have next year a medical program for the first time. We're very thankful to Flinders University, who will continue to provide a medical program. But, when you consider that the Northern Territory is about 60 doctors short, it's about our ability to get a pipeline of doctors, including First Nations doctors, but with a preference for Territorians so that there's a better chance of them hanging around rather than us training up doctors and then seeing them disappear down south.

We are building the north. We're building the Territory. The way we are doing that is through things like fee-free TAFE and things like having young Territorians able to purchase their first home and become homeowners with just a five per cent deposit and, if they happen to be studying, knocking 20 per cent off their HECS debt. It all helps—tax cuts and the whole lot helps. Assisting Territorians with the cost of living has been very important for me, as it is for our whole government. When it comes to youth, I particularly want to make sure that we've got opportunities for young Territorians. They'll always seek to go interstate to have the adventure of living in a big city interstate, but I want to make sure that there's enough going on in Darwin and Palmerston and that we're building our population and infrastructure, social and otherwise, so that Territory kids say, 'I've heard from my schoolmates about great employment opportunities happening back at home in Darwin'—or in Palmerston or anywhere in the Top End.

The infrastructure builds, the logistics hubs, the focus on solar and the focus on how we utilise our gas reserves in environmentally sustainable ways and turn Territory sunshine into energy security is not only for us in the north. It's to power green industry, because that's where the future is, but it's also to send overseas—undersea, in fact, through cables to Singapore and, in the future, Indonesia as well to help them with their energy security. We've certainly got the land to do that, and we've got some of the best solar radiance in the world, so that is really exciting, and it's really exciting for young Territorians to know that there are going to be so many future energy, renewable energy and critical minerals jobs in the NT.

I'll touch on defence. Obviously, having served in the Defence Force, I'm incredibly proud of our serving men and women and those who have worn the uniform. They are great ambassadors for the country. I met this morning with the very impressive deputy chief of Army, Chris Smith, and we talked about a lot of issues that came out of the royal commission and the way Army is changing in ways subtle and significant to make sure that we optimise the human capital of the patriots who sign up to serve in our defence forces, particularly when it comes to looking after people who are using weaponry. That is serious weaponry that we need as an insurance policy for our nation. We need a strong military. I'm proud of those that are working on the AUKUS endeavour. I'm proud of those who are making sure that our men and women have got the best possible support that they can. And, as a special envoy, that is exactly what I'm committed to.