Opinion pieces, speeches & transcripts

ABC Afternoon Briefing 7 December 2020

December 07, 2020

Well, look, I mean we're deeply concerned about this Bill, no case has been made, the Government commissioned the University of Adelaide to do a review of this and haven't released it. We're concerned that there are issues of racial discrimination underpinning the approach, and I listened to the Prime Minister during Question Time talking about how its Australians who are best placed as to how to spend their money. What an extraordinary thing...

November 24, 2020

But what we've seen time and time again, for this government, particularly this area, is a complete aversion to transparency, and a failure to treat people in our care with the decency that they're entitled to, and indeed, the dignity as well. I heard Dana, I think it was, speaking about the need for human connection that refugees and people seeking asylum need as all of us do, and I hope, the Minister or one of his staff was listening to that...

October 24, 2020

Well, I'm shocked and I think all Australians should be shocked by this. These are people who are personally selected by the government for these critical corporate enforcement roles, and yet we're seeing - I mean staggered by this, $118,000 spent on tax advice by the taxpayer for Mr Shipton. This is absolutely extraordinary. What's even more extraordinary, though, is that it seems that this was reported by the ANAO...

October 03, 2020

Well it is really important and I do agree with one thing that Darren said, that we have recognised through the pandemic that we need to build our capacity in so many areas of the economy. The pandemic has been an x-ray, as many have said, on many weaknesses in our economy and our society. It is pretty galling from the government that goaded the car industry out of here, I mean I was in Parliament five years ago when Joe Hockey effectively dar...

August 22, 2020

The Minister should know what is going on in his portfolio, particularly at a time like this and it wasn't an obscure question he was asked, it was a very fundamental one. 258 Australians have lost their lives in aged care due to COVID and we should have had better answers. What is more concerning to me is the ongoing failure to take responsibility. We saw an admission yesterday from the Prime Minister that there wasn't a plan and that more ne...

July 28, 2020

These are older Australians, vulnerable Australians, many who can't effectively speak for themselves and are in very very difficult circumstances and too often, family members have been unable to communicate directly, they've been unable to obtain information about the well being...