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82 <strong>SENATE</strong> Thursday, 13 October 2016 don't think I can do so at this point. Each contributed to the diverse fabric of our society, just as those who find their way to Australia by plane or by boat can do, if given the chance. One fanatic or a handful of fanatics does not equal an entire people, and using fear and suspicion to divide, to single people out for simply being, is cowardly and self-serving. Fear is not a responsible way to govern, or to grow a movement. My hope is that all in this chamber will join me in rejecting fear as a weapon of mass manipulation. The Australia I want to live in does not rule by fear but is one that builds a better tomorrow. This is an Australia that nurtures its young and teaches them the real-world skills needed to make their way in the world. It supports families from school to retirement and cares for our elderly, who must be respected for the contribution they have made to our communities. This is an Australia that ends predatory gambling, which lures people with the promise of easy money, where our children are no longer exposed to gambling advertisements during sports broadcasts and where our government actually introduces essential, recommended reforms, including the $1 bets that make poker machines much less addictive. If we are to put an end to problem gambling we need social media sites to operate on an optin basis for serving gambling ads, rather than bombarding users with hard-to-resist offers. For the 400,000 Australians who struggle with problem gambling or who are at risk of developing a full-blown gambling addiction, and with $23 billion lost to gambling each year, the government has a duty of care to its citizens, not to its donors. With the highest per capita gambling losses in the world, this is a massive drain on our collective wellbeing and one that can, quite frankly, be avoided. I want to see an Australia which builds an education system that delivers for our young people, a system that is measured on employability and not simply by NAPLAN or ATAR ratings. An ideal system would ensure students leave school job-ready and would provide a real, substantial career path for those who choose not to pursue university. I want to see these young people equipped to fill the shortages in the trades and professions our communities need, identified through real, very real, partnerships with industry. The 2015-16 figures from the Department of Employment show just how urgently this is needed. In the last financial year, 38 percent of apprenticeship vacancies were unfilled. For every vacancy there was an average of 22 applicants, but an average of only 2.4 applicants were considered suitable by employers for the role. Think about that for a moment. Our young people are graduating from school without the basic skills needed to even apply for entry level apprenticeships. Even those who complete university fall into a similar trap. Too often, a student's decision to study at university is not based on a real understanding of their future career or their personal strengths. Instead, it is based on their perception of a future career, or the need to just do something or, more than likely, the need to get their parents off their back. I believe pre-university internships will help students make the right choice and very much lessen the drain on the higher education public purse. Key to this, of course, is ensuring educational institutions more accurately match course demand with available jobs and, in the case of many universities, not load up the cost and availability of specific degrees when the prospect of future employment is limited. Australia already has too many law graduates, for example, who instead of becoming solicitors end up as baristas. Nick didn't help me with that one, by the way. If we are failing our young, we are also failing our elderly. Too often those who contributed to their communities end their working lives relying on government support that, in some cases, reduces them to living below the poverty line or making them wait for important surgery or an ACAT assessment or spend months waiting to find a home or residential care provider that is able to support them. Building a better Australia for our elderly means we should not be cutting the Aged Care Funding Instrument, which will potentially strip between $6,000 and $18,000 a year away from individual nursing home residents with complex and serious healthcare needs. And while the model in its present form is without a doubt being rorted by some operators, with funding often diverted to non-resident-care areas, the planned blanket cuts will overwhelmingly punish the majority of operators who are doing the right thing. These cuts will not save money. They are simply a cost-shifting exercise from the Commonwealth to state governments, which will result in more aged-care facilities being unable to treat complex healthcare patients, because payments have been slashed. Many in the aged-care sector will be relegated to the state hospital system, where costs are about five times as high each day. If we are to build a better Australia for all we must not let our economy be hollowed out. A strong economy is a complex economy, capable of harnessing the creative power of the people it supports and driving real innovation that leads to growth. That means Australia must continue to make things. CHAMBER
Thursday, 13 October 2016 <strong>SENATE</strong> 83 Every year, the federal government alone spends $60 billion on goods and services, with $8 billion going directly overseas. Even the crockery used in the members' dining room, which carries the Commonwealth's crest, was made overseas. We must accept that the government has a role to play in the economy, and that begins with procurement policies across all levels of government. In the future, I want governments to buy Australian-made first. We are needlessly exporting billions of dollars in jobs and missing out on all the economic activity that comes with buying local. It is also time for government to once more take responsibility for providing and running essential utilities such as electricity, water and gas and, in the case of the federal government, the NBN. Some might say that these services should not be a core function of government and that they are better managed by private enterprise. That, absolutely, is not the view of the public. The public will continue to hold governments of all persuasions to account for the performance of what they see as core human needs. Whilst privatisation over the years has given billions to governments that have not managed their budgets well, it has been a disaster for everyday Australians. We have seen an increase in costs and often a reduction in service levels and, importantly, maintenance. The recent statewide power blackout in South Australia that left 1.6 million people in the dark could well be just one example. It is time to reverse the trend of governments, and particularly state governments, absolving themselves of responsibility and bring utilities back into public hands. As an aside, I also must mention that the first time that I met Nick was around 20 years ago when I was running the Retailers Association and Nick was a new member of the SA parliament. At that time he was actually holding up the privatisation of SA's electricity assets. Absolutely everybody was attacking him at the time apart from my association. Back then I was the only business leader that supported Nick in his opposition to privatisation, so you can understand why I feel so strongly about this issue. Finally, I want to see electoral reforms that ensure truth in advertising and political parties very much included in privacy laws, spam laws and other provisions. Why should a political party be exempt from laws that apply to everyone else? The creeping role of dark money in politics is a threat to Australian democracy, and to combat it we need more timely disclosure of donations and a substantial lowering of disclosure amounts. My belief is that we should actually look to the UK model, where TV political advertising, as an example, is banned and only a small number of party political broadcasts are permitted. Such a model, rolled out into all media, would create a more level playing field and limit the donations arms race, which everybody in this room follows. These are just some of the policy objectives I will be pursuing in my role as an NXT senator for South Australia. With that, I also want to acknowledge Nick Xenophon—he hates me saying that. You are a good friend, Nick, and it is an honour to sit alongside you and Skye on these benches. I would not be standing here today without Nick, whose relentless advocacy for South Australia won the support of the 231,000 people who voted for NXT at the recent election. Together with my colleagues Skye Kakoschke-Moore and the member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, I will do all in my power to ensure the government continues to invest in South Australia's future and to ensure that our state is very much a significant contributor to Australia's future prosperity. As no-one gets elected alone, I would like to say thank you to all of our candidates and the over 2,000 volunteers who worked tirelessly throughout the campaign. A special thank you goes to Rachel Pace, our party campaign coordinator. Rachel, we could not have done it without you. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to my beautiful wife, Kristin, from whom I draw my strength, and to my amazing kids, Cassie, Asher, Natan and Teya. You are the reason I am here. Your love and support is only matched by my love of being on this journey with you. To all in this chamber tonight, I believe that together we can do great things for our communities and to build a better Australia. It is not going to be easy and it is likely we will not agree all of the time, but I am up for the challenge. DOCUMENTS National Cancer Screening Register Bill 2016 Tabling Senator NASH (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of The Nationals, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Local Government and Territories and Minister for Regional Communications) (16:22): I table some answers to Senator Xenophon as a result of the debate on the National Cancer Screening Register Bill earlier today. CHAMBER
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Senator State or Territory Term exp
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Title Minister Minister for Health
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