ON behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia I present the committee's advisory report, incorporating a dissenting report, on the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Bill 2016. The Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia was pleased to undertake and report on the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Bill 2016, or the NAIF bill. Throughout this…
Last Saturday week I went to a celebration of my 20th anniversary of being elected to this parliament. We had a wonderful fundraiser, there, for a cancer charity called COUCH and we raised a very significant amount of money. But as I reflected on the 20 years since I became a member in 1996, I…
Today, I present to the House the second installment of the boomerang petition, with some 2,635 signatures supporting the recognition of Indigenous people in the Constitution. Cairns Indigenous leader Norman Miller has collected more than 5,100 signatures in total—a huge effort from a single person committed to a particular cause. Norman has travelled around Australia…
I would like to respond, particularly acknowledging 24 March as being World Tuberculosis Day. I, like many other Australians, believed that tuberculosis was consigned to the history books along with sanatoriums and iron lungs. My mum was treated for tuberculosis in 1963 and spent a year in the thoracic ward in Cairns. It had a…
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to speak on the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Increasing Consumer Choice) Bill 2016. There is no doubt that Australia has an ageing population and, with advances in medical technologies, together with education about disease prevention and control, it is leading to us living longer lives. I find…
I move the motion: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) the Tibetan Plateau is: (i) the largest source of freshwater beyond the Arctic and Antarctic; (ii) a major driver of the global climate; (iii) the source of most of Asia's major rivers; and (iv) an area of great significance to the global environment; and…
In this Centenary of Anzac one battalion that deserves recognition is the 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment, which celebrated 100 years of service at the weekend with a parade down the Cairns Esplanade. The battalion was formed in Egypt in 1914, but their role has changed profoundly since then. It was in the early…
I also rise to speak on the Narcotic Drugs Amendment Bill 2016. From my perspective, it is a very significant day when medical cannabis is acknowledged as being a product that makes a real difference to people suffering from chronic conditions or terminal disease. It will mean that patients and their family members will no…
I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2015-2016 and cognate bill. These bills seek authority from the parliament for the additional expenditure of money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for this financial year. The total of the appropriations being sought through these two bills is just over $2.2 billion. The…
On behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia, I present the committee's report entitled Scaling up: inquiry into opportunities for expanding aquaculture in northern Australia, together with the minutes of proceedings. Scaling up is the report of an in-depth investigation into the aquaculture industry in Northern Australia following on from the committee's earlier…