The Future of Unions in Australia and the Implications for Labor

February 02, 2018

Shortly before Parliament rose last year, the Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, again drew attention to the poor rate of wages growth in Australia and its impact on the broader economy. While he was at pains to stress that he wasn’t – in his words – ‘calling on the workers of the world to unite to rise up against the evil capitalists’, he has on a number of occasions recently urged workers to muscle up for a pay rise. Over the past couple of...

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Grasping the Nettle on Democratisation of the ALP

January 22, 2018

Back in 2015, I had the privilege of being elected National President of the Labor Party on a very clear platform of wanting to contribute to reforms that would see our great Party become more democratic and participatory, and substantially bigger and better organised. More than two years later, most of the meaningful changes that were discussed by Party members during that ballot have been blocked by factional leaders at the National Conferen...

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Cambodian statement - 7/12/17

December 07, 2017

I again rise to express my very deep concern at the abuse of civil and political rights in Cambodia by the Hun Sen regime. Since the 2013 election, there has been a concerted campaign by the regime to crush civil society and press freedom and to neutralise its political opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the CNRP. The closure of The Cambodia Daily and Radio Free Asia is just one example of the oppression of a free press.

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BILLS - Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 - Second Reading

December 06, 2017

It's an absolute pleasure to rise in support of this bill, the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017, as a longtime supporter of marriage equality and as someone who voted in favour of what I will call the Jones bill in 2012

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2017 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE COASTAL CONFERENCE

November 09, 2017

We are advised by the Climate Change Authority and the Climate Council that an increase over the course of this century of around 1 or 1.1 meters in sea level will lead to a 1 in 100 year flood risk starting to appear several times every year – as much as ten times every year.

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NEM FUTURE FORUM 2017 – FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE NEG

October 31, 2017

Unfortunately, the latest vague announcement appears to have taken us backwards, not forwards.

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