I rise to take note of the document entitled ‘Minister for Women (Senator Cash) to a resolution of the Senate of 3 February 2016 concerning the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’.

The motion before this chamber is very, very broad in scope. I commend Senator Leyonhjelm for his broad and thoughtful speech, which ranged across a wide range of policy areas and pieces of legislation, although I think he will be unsurprised to hear that in so doing I do reserve to my right to disagree with him quiet vehemently in some respects.

For the past few months, environmental groups have joined the farmers’ lobby and other stakeholders in negotiating the shape of NSW’s conservation laws with the state government. 

I rise to address Australia's rental crisis. 2.7 million Australian households rent. They are the forgotten face of Australia's housing affordability crisis. They are forgotten in our national conversation and, unhappily, they are forgotten by the Turnbull government. 

Domestic violence is once again on the public agenda. I am glad that we are talking about it, but I am saddened that we have to talk about it. I am saddened and horrified by the tragedies that occurred late last week that wrenched our attention, once again, to a problem that is ordinarily in society's peripheral vision. It is something we are aware of but do not look at.

I spoke at Labor’s National Conference about tax and tax transparency: If people and companies want to use contrived structures to avoid tax, they should be prepared to publicly defend their decisions.

The election of the Whitlam Government in 1972 precedes my birth. However the decisions of that government shape both the country I grew up in and the party I joined.

We need a system that lets more people have a say in who represents Labor in the Senate Labor’s vote in the West Australian Senate re-run election suggests we have a long way to go to meet our two goals — winning elections, and fighting and winning the battle of ideas.

Margaret Whitlam never held elected office. But she was instrumental in defining a model of public service for modern Labor women.