Please click below to read some of my speeches in the Queensland Parliament.
I rise to speak in support of the youth justice amendment bills before the House. The question has been asked: why do we need to change the existing laws introduced by the former government? To better understand this we need to look back at why these laws were introduced by the Newman government. During the second reading of the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 the then Attorney-General and Minister for Justice said at 1...
Read MoreI rise to oppose this motion. On all measures of jobs and employment, those opposite failed. Let us look at their track record. They sacked 14,000 public servants. We are led to believe that they have a newfound concern about jobs and employment, but when it comes to credibility: fail. Perhaps I should pull out my red pen. Let us go through this. Unemployment was 6.6 per cent when we took office after peaking at 7.1 per cent when the Leader of...
Read MoreI rise to speak in support of the National Injury Insurance Scheme (Queensland) Bill 2016 as the Chair of the Education, Tourism, Innovation and Small Business Committee, which had the responsibility to initially conduct an inquiry into the most suitable model and was then later required to examine the bill in detail. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the many groups and organisations for their submissions and those who spoke to the committ...
Read MoreThis government supports the Adani project. We have supported this project from the beginning and we will continue to support it. During the state election campaign the LNP members erected two shipping containers, one on top of the other, to form a big billboard. In fact, it was so big it almost needed its own postcode. The billboard that they placed a poster on said that a vote for Labor would cost 2,000 Adani jobs for the people of Townsvill...
Read MoreI rise today to speak to report No. 12 of the Education, Tourism, Innovation and Small Business Committee. As chair of the committee, I acknowledge the work done by the committee and the secretariat during this inquiry. This inquiry was about protecting the safety of all Queenslanders. This parliament has worked hard to implement legislation to prevent smoking in public places. Looking at the impact this would have in universities, RTOs and TA...
Read MoreToday I rise to speak in support of the Retail Shop Leases Amendment Bill 2015. As the committee chair, firstly I thank the committee members for all their work. In particular, I mention the then honourable member for Toowoomba South and deputy chair, the Hon. Dr John McVeigh, who has now left this House. I thank the secretariat for all the work associated with this bill. Watch recording of this speech
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