Letter to Defence Minister – Classic Hornet for the QLD Air Museum

Dear Minister, Re: F/A-18A/B Classic Hornet Request – Queensland Air Museum. I write in support of the Queensland Air Museum’s request to be allocated an F/A-18A/B Classic Hornet, a long-standing request for a profound symbol of Australia’s military, aviation, and technology heritage. In 1974, the Queensland Air Museum opened in Brisbane, before being forced to […]

Sacre Bleu: Macron warns against AUKUS Nuclear powered subs

The inescapable fact is that the $90 billion French Attack Class Submarines that were to be built for the RAN would not have been up to task in the current threat environment. Both the Coalition and Labor agree on this point. The fact that this has upset the French, who remain an important Pacific ally, is as regrettable as it is understandable.

Statement on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament

An equal voice for all Australians is the bedrock of our liberal democracy. It was at the heart of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, which gave women the right to vote. It was at the core of Menzies’ Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962, which gave Indigenous Australians the right to vote. In my maiden speech to Parliament, I […]

St Thomas More Lecture – Freedom of Religion

Thank you Bill and the St Thomas More Forum team for inviting me along to share tonight. I’m honoured to be here in the parish whose namesake is that of another former Speaker of the House, albeit 500 years (in 1523) and 17,000 kilometres apart. And of course St Thomas More was declared by Pope […]

One of the few moments in public life that I have found myself in tears

It was one of the few moments in public life that I have found myself in tears and challenged to maintain composure. I sat and listened to the heart-wrenching stories of about a dozen participants at Australia’s first residential treatment facility for those suffering from eating disorders, named Wandi Nerida in Mooloolah, on the Sunshine […]

Houston, we have a problem: Labor lightyears behind on space policy

Chinese philosopher, Zhuangzi once said that “the wise man looks into space, and he knows there are no limited dimensions.” Our competitors know this to be true.

The potential scale of conflict – and of achievement – in space is limitless. Will Australia be ready for take-off after two more years of a Federal Labor Government? Or will we find ourselves, as we did in 2013, grounded and dependent upon our great and powerful friends? Time will tell.

Building Industry Could Collapse Under PI Pressure

First published in the Courier Mail on 26 June 2019. Within days $35 billion construction industry could grind to a halt and, outside a small but critical group of private building certifiers, no-one is even talking about it. Unless the State Government acts before June 30, builders will stop getting paid, buildings will stop beingbuilt, and […]

Tour de Fisher

In five days last week I cycled over 200km and stopped to speak to local residents in 26 different towns around the Southern and Central Sunshine Coast in my electorate of Fisher. I rode my pushbike to Mooloolaba and Montville, Pelican Waters and Peachester, Conondale and Currimundi and all the towns in between.  I had […]