If you were a woman working in Australia in the 1960s, you earned 25 percent less than a man. It wasn't just discrimination -- it was the law. A lot has changed since then. 

I wanted to make a few remarks about the report that was handed down yesterday by the Privileges Committee in the Senate. The report has found that in executing raids, during an election, in the offices of a sitting Senator, Senator Conroy, to recover documents in relation to the NBN, there was improper interference in the functions of the Parliament. 

Labor has called for a Senate inquiry into the fraught Community Development Program, with the support of the Greens. Communities across the Northern Territory and Western Australia have consistently told us that this system leaves people in more debt, without food to feed their families, in rental arrears and feeling hopeless, struggling with an infuriating bureaucratic reporting process. 

Last night, in the dead of night, at around midnight, the Senate passed a package of cuts that strips away almost two billion dollars from Australian families in the coming years. These are not families that can afford to have this money taken away from them. These are not well-off families. 

The motion we are considering this afternoon asks us to debate how the federal government's housing affordability policy will fail young Australians unless it ends tax breaks for investors, removes stamp duties, and transitions to a broad based land tax. 

Eighteen months ago, Malcolm Turnbull took the Liberal leadership promising a more mature discussion on economic issues. We’re still waiting. After all this time, it is still not even clear who is responsible for housing affordability. 

Industry and expert witnesses lined up to slam the government’s inaction on energy policy at a hearing today of the Senate Select Committee into the Resilience of Energy Infrastructure in a Warming World. Danny Price, who advised the Prime Minister on energy when he was Opposition Leader, agreed with Senator McAllister that Australia’s energy crisis was caused by an “investment strike”.

We do not accept the decision that’s come down today and we don’t accept the reasoning that underpins it. There are many things that have happened in the last couple of years that might have changed this decision. 

Malcolm Turnbull's health cuts are putting pressure on Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital and hospitals around Australia. Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare Catherine King and Senator for NSW Jenny McAllister visited the Hospital today to hear from patients, doctors, nurses and staff about the impact of the cuts.

More than a week ago Labor made the public observation that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead. We did so on the back of the very public statements by President-elect Trump that he remains opposed to the trade deal.