MARK DREYFUS MP

There are many arguments against the death penalty. We have heard many of them in speeches by other members in this debate. They are multiple arguments and they are overlapping arguments against abolition, but, for me, for our society to kill one of its members is an act which diminishes us all. We should believe in life and not in death and it is a matter that can be reduced to terms seemingly as simple as that. It does not aid the victims to judicially kill.

Today I want to wish all Australians who celebrate the lunar new year a happy and prosperous Year of the Tiger. The Year of the Tiger is the third year of the 12-year cycle of the lunar calendar. The tiger symbolises strength, courage and fight. 2010 promises to be a happy, prosperous and healthy year, and I wish the very best of luck to everyone who was born a tiger.

The Rudd government's economic stimulus plan continues to support jobs and working families in Isaacs and is helping to make our communities better and stronger.

Australia has managed to avoid a recession through the worst global downturn in more than 75 years. Australia's economy is the only advanced economy that expanded in the year to June 2009. According to the IMFs World Economic Outlook update, Australia's economic growth was positive, and Australia was the only advanced economy to achieve this.

It is over a decade since Australia last held a referendum, over thirty years since there was a successful referendum to change the Constitution, and it is nearly a century since the introduction of the yes/no pamphlet as the principal means of informing voters in a referendum.

Climate change is a diabolical problem, because it requires both national and international action to avoid catastrophic consequences

I rise today to speak about Jim Maher AO, a man who was a true giant of the trade union movement and one of the most influential figures in building the largest union in Australia - the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, known affectionately as the Shoppies.

The ABC is a vital Australian institution. We need to defend the ABC against the attacks of those opposite, against the attacks of commercial corporations who have an interest in limiting the activities of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and SBS, who are direct competitors and through their own news outlets are continuing to mount an attack on the ABC.

The scheme that has been announced today by the new Leader of the Opposition is simply a continuation of the delay and denial that we have become accustomed to in this area from the opposition.

It is entirely appropriate in the difficult economic times that the country is facing, and is certainly likely to continue to experience as a result of economic difficulties in many other developed countries, that these reforms are undertaken.