Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: In Western Australia yesterday we saw an absolutely horrible situation at Atlantis Beach Baptist College. Students have been through an incredibly traumatic night after a shooter attempted to injure students at that school. I just want to say as a West Australian, and I think on behalf of the entire Parliament, that the thoughts of this building with all of those students, teachers and school staff and their families who are affected by this awful incident that should not happen anywhere in Australia, shouldn’t happen anywhere in the world, and definitely shouldn’t happen at a school.
Our schools should be places of learning. Our schools should be places where students go, where parents know they are safe. And I think for parents around Australia today, seeing that awful news would make you feel that little bit worried as you do the school drop off. But I do want to thank everyone who responded in that situation. And fortunately, every student went home safe.
In other sad news, we learned this morning of the death of Tina Turner, an incredible performer who left a domestically violent situation with 36 cents to her name. And staged one of the most amazing comebacks ever. There’s a few comebacks that happen in this building from time to time, but then comeback with Tina Turner was really something else. And I think all of us at times have done the Nutbush badly at a dance here or there. But Tina Turner was ‘simply the best.’
And then we come to the activities of this building this week. Of course, much of the activity has been just down the road in Sydney, where we’ve had the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An incredibly important moment for Australia and our bilateral relationship with India. Something that is important on people to people links for the Indian diaspora. It’s important in our future trade links. It’s important in terms of our security relationships. And I think we saw just how important it was to many Australians with that very, very warm welcome for Prime Minister Modi in Sydney.
What we’ve also had in the Parliament this week is the discussion on the Voice. It is a unique opportunity to get a discussion in your Parliamentary career on a Constitutional Amendment. We haven’t had a debate in the Parliament on this since 1999. It is a moment where I’ve seen some of the best speeches I’ve seen delivered in this Parliament. The people who have come thoughtfully, put their ideas forward about what we should do for the future of our Constitution.
And I had the fortune last night of being in the Parliament, when Andrew Gee gave his speech on the Voice. I want to commend his leadership, it was not only a very strong speech about why Australians should vote Yes for constitutional recognition. It was also a reflection of Andrew Gee’s leadership, that he took that decision to stand up for what he believed in. And I really want to commend him and I want to encourage Australians to read the speech from Andrew Gee or, indeed, watch it. It was an incredible contribution. And not everyone can be in this building, but for the marvels of technology, you can go to the Hansard website and you can read it in full.
And then we also had for those of us in the Parliament House band, the Left Right Out Band we did have the Wiggles come and play with for the Parliamentary Friends of Children’s Storytelling. That was an incredible experience. I want to thank Anthony, Dorothy the Dinosaur, the entire team for being here and sharing with the Parliament, the importance of children’s stories, the importance of valuing children, the importance of making sure that we invest in high quality Australian content, something that Minister Tony Burke is so passionate about.
And then I think the other thing I think about on this Thursday, the end of this sitting week, is that two weeks ago in this building, we had Peter Dutton giving his Budget Reply. The thing I’ve been looking for for the last two weeks is, ‘where are the costings?’ It’s normal, that when you put out a big policy idea or two, as Mr. Dutton claims that he did on nuclear energy and other things, that you would have costings for those policies. Mr. Dutton hasn’t released costings, he’s had two weeks.
But what we have learned in Parliament this week is what Mr. Dutton was spending his time on. He was spending his time arranging the diary of his Western Australian Shadow Attorney-General to meet with far right men’s activists groups. Why Mr. Dutton was involving himself in the diary of one of his senior front benchers to require this particular meeting is a question I think many Australians be wondering today. Why did he need to do that? Why did he think that this was the important thing that his Shadow Attorney-General should be doing? And so that’s the question I have for Mr. Dutton.
While we know that his priorities might lie in a few weird places, such as setting up such meetings and nuclear power, will continue with our agenda. Our agenda to invest in manufacturing. Our agenda to get wages moving. Our agenda, to make sure that we ease the cost of living by investing in things like childcare, which has so many benefits. It’s good for families, it’s good for children and it’s good for Australia.
And we will continue asking those in this Parliament to back what the Australian people asked for at the election last year. That is, the Housing Australia Future Fund, making sure we can get more money into social and affordable housing to build more houses. We’ve done the work. The legislation’s in the Parliament. We’ve just need the support to get it done. Thank you.
