May and June 2024 - Payne's Parliamentary Proceedings

12 June 2024

The last fortnight in Parliament saw important reforms progressed, Senate Estimates, and Canberra and APS bashing from the Liberal Party.

In the House we debated important legislative reforms such as the Net-Zero Economy Authority, the introduction of Australia’s first ever Environmental Protection Agency, reforms to the NDIS, and changes to the social security system.

I took the opportunity to speak on a number of occasions including on:

And questions to both the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the Minister for Aged Care.

Over the fortnight, I had the opportunity to attend two briefings from frontline workers in Gaza.

The first was organised by the Labor Member for Reid Sally Sitou with workers from UNICEF who are currently in Gaza and joined us remotely. The second, which many from our community also attended, was organised by Senator David Pocock with aid workers from Médicins Sans Frontières.

Both of these briefings were unsurprisingly deeply confronting.

I have the deepest admiration for the selfless and incredibly bravery these aid workers who have gone into what is currently “hell on earth” to help others.

The killing and maiming of innocent people and man-made starvation in Gaza must end. Australia has been advocating for a ceasefire for the past 6 months and will continue to push for peace.

I spoke about these briefings and the situation Gaza on Thursday which you can watch here.

As usual, Coalition MPs in the Parliament continue to attack Canberra and Public Servants, and particularly what the Albanese Labor Government is doing to rebuild the APS after nearly a decade of neglect and disrespect under the previous government.

On Monday 3 June alone, the Hansard records 59 occasions where the word ‘Canberra’ was used by a Coalition MP in a disparaging way.

In speech after speech, you hear them talk our city down and even more concerningly, dismiss the work of hardworking public servants.

I’m incredibly proud to represent many public servants who live in our great national capital, working to serve all Australians, and I’ve had enough of this disrespect and damaging rhetoric from the Coalition. I spoke about this in the House and you can watch it here.

This fortnight I was proud to stand with my Labor colleague Josh Burns MP, the chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, and other committee members to announce that our committee has recommended the establishment of a national Human Rights Act.

Australia is the only liberal democracy without a bill or charter that protects people's rights. Rights such as the right to a healthy environment, to a safe and secure home, to an adequate standard of living and the right to be who you are, no matter who you love or what you believe in.

The ACT led the way as the first jurisdiction to have a Human Rights Act and I'm pleased that learnings from this experience informed our report.

Many people have advocated for this reform over decades and I'm proud we've made this recommendation.

The committee report is available to read here and I’m looking forward to the Government’s response.

The last fortnight saw several wins for Australia’s climate action commitments and for the protection of our environment.

The Government’s bill to establish the Net-Zero Economy Authority passed the House of Representatives and the legislation to establish Australia’s first federal Environmental Protection Agency (Environment Protection Australia) was introduced.

I was able to take the opportunity to speak about the Net-Zero Economy Authority and will seek to speak on the EPA debate in the coming weeks.

I was also able to speak about the 2024 Budget and what it means for Australia and for Canberra.

For those in our community living in the Canberra electorate, you would have already received a budget breakdown in my newsletter delivered to your mailbox.

You can watch my full speech here or view an online version of my newsletter here.

I also delivered a speech written by year 11 Canberra Grammar student Victor Ni, the winner of my 2024 Budget Speech competition. Well done to Victor and to all those who entered the competition.

I was happy to host several visits with ministers in the Canberra electorate over the fortnight.

The Minister for Small Business Julie Collins and I visited local photographer Scott Leggo’s gallery in Kingston to talk about small business support in the Budget.

Minister for Education Jason Clare and I visited the University of Canberra Hospital to speak to nursing students who will benefit from the Government’s decision to pay students for their prac placements during their degrees.

And Minister for Early Childhood Anne Aly and I visited Goodstart Garran to talk about the Government’s decision to back in a pay rise for Early Childhood Educators, workers doing incredibly important work educating our youngest Australians.

On 19 May we lost a giant of the Canberra and ACT Labor community in Bill Wood AM. Bill was a founding member of the ACT Assembly in 1989 and served for 15 years including as a Minister across a wide range of portfolios.

It was a great honour for me to have known Bill. He was someone I always looked up to and I always appreciated his advice.

I paid tribute to Bill Wood in a speech in the Parliament which you can watch here.

Thanks very much once again for reading this far. It was a busy fortnight in the Parliament with a lot being progressed.

As always, if you have any questions, issues or concerns you’d like to raise with me please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

You can follow me on my social media accounts to keep up to date on the links under my signature block.

Until next time.

Alicia