Tim Watts: In the last month the world has seen one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents in history. But, engulfed in scandal, the Morrison government has been paralysed in the face of this very serious national security risk. We have seen no press conference from the Prime Minister and the defence minister, as we saw in June last year in the face of an analogous cybersecurity risk. The...
Read More >Tim Watts: I'm pleased to rise to speak on the appropriations bills for 2020-2021. It's been an extraordinary 12 months. During the COVID-19 pandemic, time has taken on a very strange quality. For those of us who, for more than 100 days in the last 12 months, were engaged in the homeschooling of primary-school-age children, it sometimes felt that time had stopped passing altogether, as the days, the...
Read More >Tim Watts: I rise today to highlight the unfolding COVID-19 crisis in our nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea. Australia and Papua New Guinea share a very tight bond. Indeed, the Commonwealth star on the Australian flag has seven points to this day, as a point was added for Papua New Guinea at the start of the 20th century. This is a bond that was obviously forged in blood in the shared mateship and...
Read More >Tim Watts: I too welcome this motion. I'm pleased to support it. And I join the other speakers in the debate by offering my best wishes to the member for Lindsay and her community as they confront this very significant weather event and natural disaster. Foreign interference is a real and significant threat to Australia's national sovereignty. Indeed, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess has been warning...
Read More >Tim Watts: For the last month, the women of Australia been crying out for this Prime Minister to listen to their concerns and to show leadership on gender equality and men's violence against women, to understand that this is a societal problem that requires his attention as a leader of this nation, not a political problem to be managed in his capacity as the leader of the Liberal Party. But so far, this...
Read More >Tim Watts: I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.
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