Doorstop - Parliament House, Canberra

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: More than 16 million Australians voted at some 7000 polling places, and now myself, Ash Ambihaipahar and 150 members of the House of Representatives, 76 members of the Senate are here to work for Australia. What we saw at the election was the Australian people give us a clear message, get to work, stick to the things that you said you would do at the election and deliver for Australia. And what we'll see here at Parliament today, for the opening of the 48th Parliament, is we will see all of that enthusiasm come into this building determined to work for the Australian people. We'll have guns firing, we'll have first speeches blaring. We'll have members being sworn in. We'll have families running through the halls of Parliament. The media will be doing their job, holding us all to account. And the Albanese Government will be getting to work, delivering on the agenda we took to the Australian people. That includes our commitment to legislate for a 20 per cent cut in student debt. It includes the work we committed to do to make sure that we continue to build the childcare system that Australians deserve. Making sure that it is safe and that parents have confidence in our early childhood education system. We will deliver this week our legislation into the parliament to ensure a protection for penalty rates, making sure that Australians some 2.6 million working Australians who rely on those penalty rates get the pay that they deserve for their hard work. That's what the Albanese Government is focused on. And we're adding incredible new talent to the team. Across the House of Representatives, across all parties, there'll be some 32 new members of parliament. One of them is Ash Ambihaipahar, and she is going to bring an incredible new perspective to this parliament and a great new voice for Barton, and it's real honour to be standing with her today for the start of the 48th Parliament, and I'll hand over to her.

ASH AMBIHAIPAHAR, MEMBER FOR BARTON: Thanks Pat. Good morning everyone. My name's Ash Ambihaipahar, the member for Barton. I'm a newly elected official and really excited. I think it's really important to understand that Barton is a very diverse community. Almost fifty - I think just over 50 per cent of the electorate were born overseas. And I think it's really important that this 48th parliament is about celebrating the diversity that we're bringing here to represent not only the seat of Barton, but also nationally. So I'm pretty proud, particularly of our Labor comrades, being quite successful at the election this year. I think the other thing that I'm really excited about this particular day is learning a little bit about the ceremony, the processes today. So I'm looking forward to sort of just indulge and go through the motions of today. The other thing that I wanted to also mention, I'm pretty excited as well about the legislation that we're introducing this week regarding the cuts to HECS, 20 per cent. As someone who's just managed to pay off HECS, I did a law degree and a science degree, it took a while to pay off, I think it's really important to understand how much relief that that provides for myself and my family. To make sure that there's a little bit of extra income to address some of the issues around cost of living. So I'm pretty excited, particularly all the legislation that we're bringing in this fortnight and over the next three years. And I'm pretty proud to be here as the member for Barton. So thank you.

JOURNALIST: Ash, could you maybe tell us a bit more about your personal ambitions for this next three years, and also what you want to see for Parliament to achieve?

AMBIHAIPAHAR: So as a new member for Barton, I think one of the biggest important things for me is to really get a deep connection with the electorate. I think spending that time learning around some of the organisations and the constituency issues is really pertinent for me. But I think broadly, over the next three years, I think the results of this election is important that Australia has given us permission to lead and follow through what we've committed at the election. So that's the immediate priority. You know that we have all the first speeches coming up over the next two weeks. It's really important, I'd like to save a little bit of that for me, I'll be speaking tomorrow morning. But you will also know a little bit about myself as an employment industrial relations lawyer. Workplace relations is really important to me. And also addressing homelessness and housing, which has been a big issue, not only just in New South Wales, but broadly across the country. I think that's a really important thing to understand around dignity at work, and also dignity to make sure that you have access to shelter.

JOURNALIST: Assistant Minister, there will be quite a few maiden speeches to get through in the next two weeks. Do we expect any of the legislation to actually be able to be discussed and passed?

GORMAN: Obviously, we've got some important bills that we'll introduce this week. We were really clear that we wanted to get legislation into the parliament in the first week to get to work. What we will see is that that some of that legislation will begin to be debated and we will have legislation both in the House and, of course, in the Senate. Some of that legislation we want to get done reasonably quickly, but make sure that members across the chamber have the opportunity to put their views. We recognise, particularly when it's the first week of the parliament, that the bills that will be introduced from later this week, the Opposition and crossbench will want to read those and form their views. But also, I want this parliament to work. I want it to get things done. I think people saw in the last parliament the frustration of legislation sitting in the Senate, good bills that eventually did pass, they were sitting there for too long because people were holding them up. We want to get things done. And I think about that HECS cut; people are waiting to see that 20 per cent come off their HECS debt when they log in. I want to see that done. When I think about penalty rates, protecting something that people rely on to pay their bills, I want to get that done. And that's what we're here to do, is to deliver on the legislative agenda that we put to the Australian people. And robust debate in the parliament is a good thing. Stress test the propositions, but once that's done, there's no need for delay. We need to get these bills through. 

JOURNALIST: But the Liberals and the Greens have said they won't simply just rubber stamp the Government's legislation. Sussan Ley said yesterday she wouldn't get out of the way. I think the Prime Minister said, 'get out of the way, we've got our agenda, we've got our mandate.' Sussan Ley said she wouldn't get out of the way. I mean, is there a bit of give and take that has to still happen here, even though Labor has 94 seats in the Lower House?

GORMAN: I respect the parliament. I respect the role of each individual member of the parliament to do the job that their community or their state or their territory sent them here to do, and we'll continue to show that respect. But equally, some of these things that we're talking about, these are not new propositions. It was last year that the Prime Minister was very clear that we want to cut student debt, and we want to make it so that people don't have to pay back that debt as early on in their career at those lower income levels. We want to get that done. If the Coalition are still unsure about where they stand on that, then they should probably explain that to the Australian people, because it's been on the agenda for so long. And of course, the Coalition will continue to pass judgement on the Government's agenda. They're obviously still trying to sort out what it is they stand for. One thing that I can say, though, is I won't be voting for the Coalition bill to abandon net zero. I don't know if all the members of the Coalition will be voting for the Coalition bill to abandon net zero. We believe that we can act on climate change. We believe that the path we are walking on, which is to grab the opportunities of a renewable energy future is the right path for Australia. 

JOURNALIST: The government has signed on to this joint statement on Gaza as well. Israel has already distanced itself from that statement. I mean, what more, if anything, can the Government be doing in this area to sort of increase international pressure to change the course of what's happening in Gaza?

GORMAN: The war in Gaza must end. The fact that we are not seeing vital aid, food and humanitarian supplies get to civilians in Gaza is unacceptable, and it's been unacceptable for a long time. We joined with like-minded partners to say very clearly that we believe that the war in Gaza must end. Since the atrocities of October 7 we've been calling for the return of hostages, and we continued even this statement where we joined with like-minded countries, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Japan. We joined with them in saying that we want to see an end to this conflict. It's a clear statement from us and a range of partners, and we hope that this will get that outcome that we've been seeking for for a long time. Thank you very much. Enjoy the 48th Parliament.