There are many in the industry who are doing it very tough at the moment given the global price environment and the decisions made by Murray Goulburn and Fonterra recently to retrospectively cut farmgate milk prices. Those decisions made by Fonterra and Murray Goulburn are decisions that the government are concerned about, and that is why we have acted quickly in response to them. We have listened to the concerns of dairy farmers, holding a number of meetings in the last few months, and during the election campaign we announced a $579 million dairy assistance support package. Read more

This motion proposed by Senator Lazarus should be opposed. The motion would spread unnecessary uncertainty in our cattle industry and in particular our northern cattle industry. His motion implies that free trade agreements and also the live cattle trade itself could cause job losses. The logical end point of this motion and if the Senate supported it would be to ban or restrict exports of live cattle in favour of processing in Australia. We saw how disastrous this was in 2011 for our entire industry. Read more

It is an appreciated opportunity to make a contribution to this debate on the Recognition of Foreign Marriages Bill 2014, a private senator's bill brought forward by the Greens party. I was listening to Senator Siewert's speech, and often when this issue comes up members of the Greens party in this place show little respect for other people's views.  Read more

Senator Canavan: My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs representing the Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia. Will the minister update the Senate on its signature Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility? How will this create jobs and growth in my state of Queensland and right across Northern Australia? Read more

Today, I would like to give praise to a decision made yesterday by the Queensland Labor government. It is not common, obviously, to give praise to other political parties, but I think it is worthwhile to give credit where credit is due. Yesterday, the Queensland government issued an environmental authority for the Adani Carmichael coalmine in the Galilee Basin. That is good news for Central and North Queensland, because these areas desperately need jobs and investment projects to get going. Read more

I too took my kids to school last week as Senator Dastyari did. I share his comments in commending the incredible commitment of the teachers and principal at my children's school, St Benedict's Catholic Primary School in Yeppoon. It is a wonderful school, and they do a great job.  Read more

It is a great honour to kick off 2016 with the first contribution. I am in continuation on a speech that I think I gave back in May last year, so forgive me if I am a bit rusty on some of the details of this bill. I had a lovely break with the family over Christmas and, during that break, I forgot most of what was in the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Exit Arrangements) Bill 2015. But I swotted up on it this morning and I am ready to make a further contribution on this very important bill. Read more

I am not going to take lessons on tax reform from the Labor Party. No-one in their right mind in this country would take lessons on tax reform from a party that has a record of absolute disasters and failures when it comes to reforming our tax system. They were only in government for six years last time, but they presided over failure after failure after failure on tax reform in this country.  Read more

Despite what you might hear in the media—and, indeed, what you heard in this chamber only a short while ago—climate change science has become less certain and gives us less reason to worry since the last major climate conference in Copenhagen six years ago. Read more

While I was finishing my first stint on this bill I believe I was speaking about the Labor Party's opposition to one element of the bill. The bill does a number of things. There are five schedules to the bill. There are a number of component parts to the fifth schedule.  Read more