For a substantial part of our history mining has been a source of national prosperity and therefore of great political significance. The Eureka rebellion in 1854 was a revolt by Victorian miners against excessive taxation and regulation by the government of the day. The symbol of that rebellion, the Eureka flag, has remained a perennial…
In Afghanistan, we are confronted with a desperate struggle for the future not just of a country but potentially of an entire region. Of course this is not the first time that Afghanistan has been the site of an apparently insurmountable conflict. Not for nothing is it known as the graveyard of empires. For some,…
It is a pleasure to be here to join you for this Remembrance Day Service and I congratulate the RSL sub-branch and all involved for its organisation. Today we commemorate the 93rd anniversary of the signing of the Armistice in 1918 which brought a temporary peace to the world after four years of savage conflict. …
Today in the House we were joined by some very motivated young, professional Queenslanders who are proud members of the Queensland Young LNP—Callum Stewart, Mathew Jackson, David Bell, Ben Tobin, Casey Silman and Sarah Jones. All have undertaken a road trip out of Queensland to come to Canberra to catch up with their idols and…
There is absolutely no shame whatsoever in opposing this package of bills—the Clean Energy Bill 2011 and associated bills. In fact, opposing this tax is the only defensible moral position to take. Not only is the carbon tax a bad piece of policy; it is the product of an unprecedented deceit perpetrated on the Australian…
I commend the amendments. Although the funding was allocated in this year's budget for a PBO, we are now almost three months down the road in the financial year and only now beginning to debate the policy in earnest. It will be astonishing if the PBO is up and running by the end of this…
Paul Lockyer, just 11 days before the horrific crash, visited the township of Grantham, where he was doing a follow-up story. Eleven days beforehand was the last interview that I did with him and I feel sure, though I would need to check the records, that that was the last interview Paul did—the follow-up story…
I rise to lend my support to the Tax Laws Amendment (2011 Measures No. 6) Bill 2011. The bill is not controversial. It is broken up into three segments. The first schedule amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 in order to ensure that certain payments made under the Better Start for Children with Disability…
Like all Australians, I was shocked and deeply disturbed by the mistreatment of Australian livestock exposed during the Four Corners program on 30 May 2011. As a cattle owner myself I do not condone any ill-treatment of animals such as weve seen in some Indonesian abattoirs. However bad practices at some abattoirs are not a reason…
This bill, the National Health Reform Amendment (National Health Performance Authority) Bill 2011, proposes to establish a statutory authority known as the National Health Performance Authority. It introduces amendments to the National Health and Hospitals Network Act 2011, which was only passed by the House on 21 March this year. The National Health and Hospitals…