RECENTLY

Last week I travelled to Alice Springs as part of the Senate inquiry I am chairing into joblessness in remote Aboriginal communities.

The Senate inquiry into the Community Development Program (CDP) has heard from NGOs, community members, Indigenous leaders and employment providers that they were not consulted by the Minister for Indigenous Affair about the CDP.

RECENTLY

Last week I spoke with community members and students at The University of Sydney about the importance of enrolling to have their say in the upcoming postal survey on marriage equality. LGBTIQ Australians deserve our support.

All Australians are urged to check their enrolment before midnight tonight following concerning reports the AEC will not be able to complete automatic enrolments in time for the marriage equality postal survey.

Malcolm Turnbull: “I have great faith that the Australian people, in that plebiscite, as they have in one contentious issue after another for the whole time this Commonwealth has been one, will be able to debate this issue in a sensible, civil and intelligent manner.”

The Chair of the Senate inquiry into the postal survey, Senator McAllister, has called on Australians to report offensive campaign material. The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee has been given wide ranging powers to inquire into the conduct of the postal survey.

I’d like to start off by thanking the Diversity Council Australia for the opportunity to be here today.I’d like to acknowledge the importance of the work that you do in developing the ideas, information and strategies to increase workplace diversity & inclusion.

RECENTLY

This week I spoke in parliament on a number of issues, including: The need for politicians to stand up against racism.

The ABS confirmed today that it still hadn’t worked out how to survey remote and overseas voters, but that the methods it was contemplating included SMS. The ABS’s evidence before a hearing of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee demonstrated how the government’s rushed process was threatening the integrity of their marriage equality ‘postal survey’.

Labor welcomes the Senate’s support for an inquiry by the Finance and Public Administration Committee into the government’s digital transformation program. The government’s spending on digital transformation and ICT has doubled since it came to office.