Parliamentary Speeches

Bills: Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020; Second Reading...

Tim Watts: Well, it's been hard to keep up with the rorts and corrupt programs that the Morrison government rolled out in the lead-up to the last election. There have been sports rorts, regional rorts, road rorts, car park rorts, pool rorts, grants for women's change rooms for footy clubs without women's teams, grants for projects that had already been announced and built-and just coincidentally...

Ministerial Statements: Closing the Gap (25 Feb 2020)

Tim Watts: We've now had 12 Closing the gap reports and 12 declarations of failure-failure to close the gap. We saw in the most recent report that five out of seven targets are not on track. This is a failure to make good centuries of injustice in our nation. You can fill a small library with the subsequent speeches made in this place about these reports-so many speeches, so much regret, and...

Adjournment: Global Security (24 Feb 2020)

Tim Watts: Almost one year ago an Australian armed with semiautomatic weapons walked into two Christchurch mosques and murdered 51 people. As we approach the 12-month anniversary of this atrocity we need to ask what has changed. Almost one year later, what exactly is the government doing differently to stop this happening again, to stop an Australian again murdering dozens in the name of white...

Statements by Members: Footscray RSL Sub-Branch (24 Feb 2020)

Tim Watts: I rise in this place to acknowledge the recent centenary of Footscray RSL. Established in 1920, two years after the end of the First World War, the sub-branch absorbed some of the 160,000 Australian men who returned gassed, maimed and mentally traumatised. While nearly 10 per cent of the Australian population enlisted in the First World War, there were no Commonwealth programs for the welfare...

Statements by Members: Domestic and Family Violence (24 Feb 2020)

Tim Watts: It's sadly familiar to speak of the scourge of men's violence against women. The recent murder of the Clarke family has struck a collective nerve across the nation. I know that I'm not alone in choking up when considering the smiles of those three children Laianah, Aaliyah and Trey-they were splashed across newspapers and television broadcasts across the nation-and choking up at...

Matters of Public Importance: Coalition Government (13 Feb 2020)

Tim Watts: Appropriately for a government run by an ad man without a plan, the last fortnight has had real a Mad Men vibe to it. They're a self-indulgent rabble obsessed with their own soap operas of personal vendettas without a care for the needs of any of those outside their own little personal bubble. Indeed, parliament's farewell for the departing Deputy Speaker, the member for Page, this week ended...