Mandatory Disclosure of Payments to Government in Extractive Industries

Julie Bishop must take responsibility for the human cost of her $11 billion in foreign aid cuts, after it was revealed today child protection, domestic violence, HIV, health, education, and clean water projects are being axed in some of the world’s poorest countries.

It appears the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has become a dilemma for the Abbott Government.

On the outskirts of the Laotian capital of Vientiane a group of primary school aged girls file into the village clinic armed with their little yellow vaccination books.

I would like to express my deep sorrow and personal disgust in relation to an anti-Semitic attack perpetrated against a group of young children in Sydney’s east on Wednesday 6 August.

On 3 July our Prime Minister stated:

"I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British Government in the then unsettled or scarcely settled great south land."

Sydney has voiced its anger over the Federal Government’s GP Tax as pressure continues to build on Tony Abbott to scrap the unpopular measure.

Last week I met a pensioner from Pagewood in my electorate.

On the doorstep of his modest home on a busy main road I listened intently trying to block out the incessant noise of trucks, buses and cars whizzing by.

Many times over the last decade I have heard people say “I’m a republican but…”.

Usually followed by excuses why not to fight for our own Head of State, this phrase has become the calling card of the closet republican.

In the weeks and months leading up to last year’s federal election I spent many hours pounding the pavement and knocking on doors.