MARK DREYFUS MP

The amendments in the Foreign Evidence Amendment Bill 2008 facilitate the process of adducing business records held overseas as evidence in Australian courts. By changing the Foreign Evidence Act, they will assist in the prosecution of persons who, by hiding money in the world's shadowy places, seek to defraud the Commonwealth. They will add to the federal government's arsenal against tax evasion, money laundering and organised crime.

The true measure of a government is not its performance during a time of prosperity but its response in a time of crisis. The Nation Building and Jobs Plan, coming on top of the Economic Security Strategy delivered in December, shows the depths of this governments commitment to doing all it can to protect Australian jobs and families from the maelstrom that has engulfed the global economic system.

These additional estimates bills are presented during a crisis that is unprecedented in our lifetime not just in scale but due to the global nature of the modern economic system.

It is difficult to imagine today just what a fundamental shift the Universal Declaration of Human Rights represented when it was adopted sixty years ago. In a post-war world scarred by the Holocaust, divided by colonialism and wracked by inequality, a charter setting out the first global and solemn commitment to the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings, regardless of colour, creed or origin, was a bold and daring undertaking.

We can go down a long list of other promises to the Australian people which we have honoured, including: the apology to Indigenous Australians and starting work on closing the gap, and signing the Kyoto protocol and working on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We are tackling the hard issues which confront this nation: computers in schools, trades training centres, a national curriculum for schools and the Murray-Darling Basin the list goes on and on. This has been a year of sensible management, of honoured commitments and of honoured promises.

There has been a widespread welcoming of this legislation not just by workers, not just by unions but also by very many employer groups. They welcome this legislation which strikes a fair balance indeed, a democratic balance.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the petitioners, who are from St Augustine's Anglican Church and Bayside Deanery Meeting of the Mothers Union, in Mentone in my electorate, for their commitment to achieving justice for those who have sought political asylum in this country.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship has done a fine job in keeping our borders secure, and in massively improving our treatment of refugees in his first year in office.

I had the pleasure of opening the Australian Over-60s Cricket Carnival

Ending violence against women means creating a culture in which such violence is unacceptable. Many have traditionally viewed violence against women as a women's problem. In fact it is a problem for men it is men, working with women, who are in a position to create a culture in our country in which violence is unacceptable.