Bill

How I Voted

How the Coalition voted

Detail of Bill

This Bill is the major piece of legislation to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions.

The Safeguard Mechanism requires Australia’s highest greenhouse gas emitting facilities to reduce their emissions in line with Australia’s emissions reduction targets of 43% below 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

This Bill legalises carbon capture and storage under Australian seabeds. It enables Australia to both import and export carbon dioxide pollution for the purpose of dumping it under Australia’s seabed.

It provides a loophole for highly polluting facilities to continue to prolong and even increase their greenhouse gas emissions by relying on carbon capture and storage: a technology which is unproven at best and has failed in Australia.

Australia does not currently have a national Environment Protection Agency. This series of Bills would have created that agency, as well as an information agency which would have been a one-stop-shop on environmental data.

I introduced amendments to the Bills to bring an end to native forest logging – which is a loss-making enterprise despite being heavily subsidised by taxpayers. (90% of the timber produced in Australia is already plantation based.)

Unfortunately, the government pulled the Bills when they were before the Senate and so we have no progress on reform to our broken environmental laws.

We are now left with a situation where there is no regulatory certainty for either nature or business – a terrible position to be in.

This Bill prohibited sexual harassment in the workplace and introduced concepts of pay transparency, expanded the concept of multi-enterprise bargaining and abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission, among other things.

I introduced an amendment to retain the Australian Building and Construction Commission which was voted down by the government.

The NRF, through the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC), seeks to diversify and transform Australia's industry to secure future prosperity and drive sustainable economic growth.

The NRFC can provide finance in the form of debt, equity and guarantees to support Australian projects that drive high-value industry transformation.

When the Administrative Appeal Tribunal was being re-established I helped negotiate for my amendment which was an independent appointment requirement.

The AAT was abolished because its independence and competency had been compromised by previous governments heavily stacking it with politically friendly appointments and cronies.

The NDIS required major changes to make it sustainable. The changes are intended to improve transparency and consistency for participants.

The NDIS had been growing at a rate of 12% per year. This Bill aims to limit its growth to 8% per year by 2026-27, by ensuring it operates as it was originally designed – to help people with the most severe forms of disability.

The original reforms were weakened by the Greens in the Senate and I voted against this legislation believing it had been weakened too much. There is no doubt vaping had become a serious public health problem particularly for our children who were being targeted by e-cigarette companies causing addiction to nicotine resulting in concentration and behavioural issues for many students.

We need to protect our kids. This Bill prohibits the importation of all single use e-cigarettes. Multi-use e-cigarettes can now only legally be obtained from pharmacists, and people under 18 must have a doctor’s prescription. I argued that all people should require a doctor’s prescription.

Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bills 2023

I voted against this Bill in the hope it would be improved in the Senate; it was, but it was rushed through the House without Members being given the opportunity to review the amendments.

The Bill criminalised wage theft, closed labour hire loopholes (same job, same pay), gives unions more access to communicate with union members and access workplaces, introduced an offence of industrial manslaughter and other measures.

This was a recommendation of the Jenkins review. It establishes an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission to make Parliament a safer workplace for all.

It imposes a workplace investigation and sanctions framework that will enforce behaviour codes for Parliamentarians, their staff and other people who work in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.

This Bill reduces the tax concession available for superannuation balances over $3m.

But there is no indexation on that amount, and it will tax unrealised capital gains.

This Bill is yet to be voted on in the Senate.

The Centre for Public Integrity called this ‘an affront to our democratic process’ as Labor and the Coalition stitched up a deal to make it much harder for independent candidates and new entrants to compete against them in elections.

The Bill does not keep big money out of our democracy and is full of loopholes to make sure the major party duopoly is entrenched.

I support real electoral reform which removes the influence of big money on our democracy, levels the playing field for all candidates to strengthen competition, and builds in greater transparency measures.

On the last day of parliament before Christmas the Government gagged debate on the Bill and refused to refer the Bill to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny.

This Bill undermines the strength of our democracy.