Parliament

That the following bills be introduced: A Bill for an Act to amend certain territory legislation to restore legislative powers concerning euthanasia and to repeal the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, and for related purposes.

Question agreed to.

I present the bill and move:

That this bill may proceed without formalities and be now read a first time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

First, let me make an apology. I want to apologise to all the people who are listening on broadcast right now who have had to endure 20 minutes of vitriol, of nonsense from the Labor Party. The Labor Party are intent on frustrating the business of this parliament. We get that we have a Labor Party who are torn and divided over the issue of electoral reform. We understand that. We understand there is a big tussle going on at the moment within the Labor Party—there are those people who support electoral reform and those people who do not. That is a legitimate position to take.

My question is for the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. Reports today indicate that your government has walked away from major tax reform, and yet today you have announced a major increase in defence spending. Given the so-called budget emergency and your refusal to end huge tax concessions like negative gearing and like the concessions in the superannuation system, Minister, how do you intend to pay for it?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General)  

Firstly, let me acknowledge the traditional owners, the Ngunnawal people. I want to pay my respect to their elders, past and present. The official Closing the Gap report and the civil society reports are very clear-we have a long way to go when it comes to achieving equal health, social and economic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Of course, the statistics tell the story-they are damning-but there is no substitute for seeing and experiencing.

I rise to speak to today's matter of public importance.

There was a national sigh of relief when Tony Abbott was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull. Most Australians gave the new Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt. We were pleased to see the end of Tony Abbott's divisive politics. We hoped that it would mark a turning point on so many critical issues-issues like climate change, getting children out of detention and marriage equality-that we would finally be able to transition our economy and set ourselves up for those industries of the future-