Excessive cutting back of nature strips’ tree canopy contributes to urban heat islands, damages trees, goes against expert advice, and costs ratepayers millions of dollars. The Allan state govt needs to drop its evidence-free red tape and wind back regulations on suburban tree pruning.

The richest 10% of Australian households get more money from the capital gains tax discount than the government spends on Jobseeker, the childcare subsidy, government schools or higher education - nearly $4.5bn more than it would cost to include dental in Medicare.

Medical research matters! Australian scientists are making potentially lifesaving breakthroughs into the molecular mechanisms of brain tumours - discoveries with potential for commercialisation and global uptake. We should support them better via the MRFF and NHMRC.

Large SUVs and utes are 82% more likely to kill children in collisions- 44% more likely to kill adult pedestrians or cyclists. They damage our roads and add to air pollution, harming our health.

Big shout out to all the legendary posties working over Christmas and New Year. Boxing Day sales mean more work for them at a hot and dusty time of year. They never stop, and they deserve our gratitude.

Really sad to hear of the passing of Dr Katie Allen. I've known Katie for four decades - we were medical students at the same time, were both paediatricians at RCH and researchers at the MCRI, and then both became federal politicians.

I’ve met with many constituents over the past three years regarding Earl Street and the Willsmere roundabout in Kew, and I’ve continued to work with local, state and federal governments on this.

AFL clubs, the Grand Prix and Victorian govt have distanced themselves from a private security group accused of worker exploitation, tax evasion, and ties to a bikie gang. Why is the Albanese govt still paying MA group to guard asylum seekers on Nauru?

Words fail. Parliamentarians hosting Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS, with an event featuring the Defence Minister, paid for by lobbyists who sell armaments. This is cash for access, pure and simple. Supported and promoted by ALP and Liberal MPs. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

The Albanese government is paying a bikie gang hundreds of millions to keep ~100 asylum seekers on Nauru, an island of ~12000 people, about the size of Tullamarine airport. They can’t work, can’t afford decent food, and can’t access proper healthcare. www.theage.com.au/world/oceani...

Congratulations to all who received their VCE results today. This is a significant milestone in your lives—but remember that the results from one set of exams do not define you or your future. You’ve achieved a great deal in reaching this point, and the really fun parts are still to come!

Australia’s medical and scientific research sectors save lives and are vital to our economy. The government has to step up and lean in to their potential. It’s small-minded and short-sighted to force them to wither on the vine, when we have money put aside for this purpose in the Future Fund.

Too many Australians are skipping specialist appointments because they can’t afford gap fees. That’s unacceptable in a country with a universal healthcare system. www.theaustralian.com.au/health/medic...

Waste, corruption, and cruelty define Australia's offshore detention regime. The Albanese Government has a duty of care to ensure asylum seekers are able to live safely and with dignity.

Hiding a “jobs for mates” report for 18 months, dumping it after the end of parliamentary year, then ignoring key recs hardly suggests a commitment to transparency & integrity in govt. Australians deserve better than what they get from the major parties www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Air pollution from cars kills more people each year than the road toll. Australia needs legislated clean air standards. The govt wouldn’t agree to include them in the environmental laws passed last week. I’ll keep trying - they’ll save lives. www.abc.net.au/news/science...

Still on a massive high after a wonderful community event last night with Malcolm Turnbull. So great to talk about evidence-based national security policy, and protection of our democracy, with an experienced, rational leader with such a remarkable backstory.

Great to see emissions beginning to fall as more and more renewable energy enters our grid. This is what happens when you set clear targets, and back them with a robust plan—unlike the Coalition’s zero target and zero plan, which would see both emissions and the cost of energy rise.

Incredibly disappointing that the education legislation being introduced today will not address the Job Ready Graduates scheme. Young people are *still* waiting for the Albanese govt to act on its pledge to cut the $55 000 they’re being charged for arts degrees.

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, marking the start of @UN_Women’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based violence. Violence against women is a global crisis. Nearly one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.

72% of Australians support a total ban on gambling ads. It’s been 881 days since the Murphy Report recommended that Parliament ban gambling advertising. 30% of Australian children aged 12 to 17 gamble - they lose nearly $20 million every year.

When student loan repayments bring in over three times more revenue than the petroleum resources rent tax (PRRT), it’s clear the system is broken. I welcome the govt’s 20% HECS cut, but there’s much more to do. Degrees are still too expensive, and this cut doesn’t help students starting this year.

Gambling ruins lives. It is absolutely unacceptable that the Albanese government will continue to choose vested interests over the wellbeing of Australians and hide behind a watered-down policy - if they ever introduce one. We need action on gambling harms now.

Losing the hosting rights to next year's COP summit is a missed opportunity to lead climate action in the Pacific, but I'd like to congratulate Minister Bowen on his prestigious appointment as COP president of negotiations.

Smart countries don’t cut funding to their world-leading science and technology research organisations. The Albanese government has to step up and provide adequate support for research and development in Australia - it has to invest in our future.

While we wait for a Liberal (any Liberal!) to show some spine on net zero, Tim Wilson is peddling disinformation about crossbenchers’ voting habits. Wilson needs to look to his own affairs and stop making up rubbish about others.

In a report released today, the AEC again confirms that it supports net zero 'on the premise that the least cost, lowest impact pathway is an energy system dominated by renewables.

The Liberals were so eager to appease the Nationals they went too far and abandoned every climate policy they had. Now the Nats want them to at least pretend to have something. Might be easier for the Libs if the Nats wrote their talking points down for them.

For the new environment laws to work, they have to apply to forestry, and they can’t be pushed aside every time the mining and fossil fuel industries get in the Minister’s ear. The govt has to scrap the ministerial discretion clause and demonstrate real intent by protecting native forests

HECS cuts have offered temporary relief for students with existing debts, but they offer nothing to students starting arts degrees next year, who face debts of close to $55 000 The govt must reverse the destructive HECS increases of the Morrison years, and make tertiary education affordable again.

Lower electricity and heating bills, anyone? Liberals: Yeah, nah

Today Victoria has signed into law Australia's first treaty with Aboriginal people. This marks a crucial step in acknowledging our past, and ensuring Victorians can move forward together in a relationship based on respect and trust.

The Liberals are considering dropping net zero because they’re riven by internal dissent. They care more about polling than about policy - more about their own ambitions and donors than about their constituents and their country.

Lest we forget. Today, we honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. I was honoured to lay a wreath at the Kew Remembrance Day service. Representatives from my office were also very proud to lay a wreath at the Camberwell service.

The govt is spending billions to keep 100 asylum seekers on Nauru, a nation of 12 000 people the size of Tullamarine airport. Reports implicating the Finks bikie gang in those deals are deeply concerning. Public servants have risked their livelihoods to speak out.

Lest we forget. On November 11, we remember those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.

Australia has a long history of dodgy deals around offshore detention. We’ve repeatedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars to companies linked to alleged criminal activities. Again and again the Morrison and Albanese govts have hidden the details of those deals. It’s a disgrace.

The EPBC nature laws the govt wants Parliament to pass today would delegate project approvals to the states. For months the WA govt has been hiding its own report, which shows that its gas industry is driving increased emissions globally.

Today, leading medical researchers from across the nation are stepping into Parliament, joining my call for the government to release the funds being withheld from the Medical Research Future Fund. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The new nature laws are too important to get them wrong. When something really matters, you have to get it right.

Hard to understand a govt that blocks teenagers from social media but has *no* issue with them accessing online gambling platforms at all, or with them being bombarded with ads for online gambling.

Australia's nature laws are the most powerful protection we have against environmental destruction and species extinction. Our new environmental laws are 5 years in the making, and 1,500 pages long.

Australia’s MRFF is sitting on billions of taxpayers’ dollars which was meant to be invested in world-leading, lifesaving health innovations.

Laughing in the face of a climate crisis.

Did you know that when you send a postal vote application to a political party, it can (and does) harvest your personal data, store it, and sell it on to third parties? It’s illegal in Victoria - but fine at a federal level.