The community the consensus is clear: the children need to go back to school. Recent reports indicate that in my home state of Victoria more than 340 teenagers a week are ending up in the hospital with mental health emergencies—an 83 per cent rise on last year and a 162 per cent increase from 2019. Anyone will tell you that these figures are truly horrific. It's a clear indication of the negative effects of the 212 days of the Andrews government's lockdowns.

While battling one health pandemic it is essential that we do not create another one. Return to school can only be achieved with safety at front of mind. What is occurring right now is simply untenable. Our young people need to go back to school. Once all school staff members are vaccinated there would be no reason this could not happen.

This bill does not seek to make any fundamental changes to the operations of the Australian court system, only to make incremental changes that will streamline and clarify existing processes. This is a commonsense bill that seeks to improve the administration processes of the federal courts and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the AAT.

At its core the bill seeks to ensure red tape does not interfere with the smooth handling of matters, especially within the context of remote working whilst the pandemic calls for it. Measures such as allowing for judges to make rulings outside of their jurisdiction due to lockdowns and remote working is one such change which will allow for the smooth running of the courts during this period in time. This is a measure which both the courts and the government believe is necessary for the long-term evolution in the way hearings are conducted that will greatly benefit the courts and tribunals moving forward. By amending the definition of 'open court' these amendments seek to clarify the validity of remote hearings and by extension ensure that the court can continue to hear matters throughout the undefined COVID-19 period and beyond.

These measures are sought by the government to also make merits review through the AAT accessible, fair, just, economical, informal and quick.

The Senate Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education's final report, the words that really hit me were that this was 'a hidden tragedy', because I don't think the topic of stillbirths can be described in any other way. This is not something that you hear talked about in the news, in the media or around the dinner table with friends and family, yet it affects thousands of Australians every year. In 2018, 2,789 babies died in the perinatal period; of those, three-quarters were stillbirths. Despite the numerous medical and technological advancements that we have achieved in recent times, the rate of stillbirths has remained the same for the last two decades. This truly is a hidden tragedy that is occurring within our country and one that is not widely discussed. As such, parents and families often suffer through this process alone. I know we did. Open and public discussion about the topic of stillbirths is vitally important. The more awareness we raise around this, the better society can support and assist those who are afflicted with the pain of going through a stillbirth pregnancy. The loss of a child of any age is unthinkable and often goes unspoken; however, it is important that we speak about it.

The Senate Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education's final report outlines how many of our societal attitudes towards death underpin the silence and stigma surrounding stillbirth. Therefore it is important—for those who have suffered from a stillbirth, as well as those who may be afflicted by this in the future—that we talk about this. Open and honest discussions with family and friends can and will raise awareness around this issue and can only help those who suffer in silence. In our roles as senators for our various constituencies, if we do not speak about such important issues then they will remain hidden and unaddressed.

To go through such a tragedy at any stage of your life would be horrible, but to feel as though you're going through it alone would make it that much worse. This is why the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan is so important. Released in December last year, the plan provides a range of actions to reduce stillbirth in Australia. While this is a crucial first step, stillbirths will not stop happening overnight. The plan has a primary goal of reducing stillbirths by 20 per cent over five years. To achieve this, the plan aims to address five priority areas: …

The threat landscape that we as a nation are confronted with today is vastly different from that of five, 10 and 20 years ago. It's important to note that next month marks the 20-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. The events in Afghanistan this week brought back the dark memories of that attack on the US people by foreign nationals. Those attacks changed the world and the way in which liberal democracies protect their citizens.

A lot has changed in those 20 years, but the need to protect Australia from attacks and interference by foreign actors has not. Technology has changed how the world works, and the massive rise of cyberattacks has created challenges which have seen the need to significantly increase the size of our intelligence agencies. The technology and geopolitics driving these changes can have serious ramifications on the effective functioning of our democracy if not properly acknowledged and addressed. Information is now more important to world affairs than at any previous point in history, as a result of those advances in data driven technology. Information is now the world's most consequential and contested geopolitical resource. It is a growing source of state power, where we have seen undoubtable evidence that many of our adversaries are expending more time, energy and resources to build and utilise this capability.

There are a variety of reasons for which states conduct intelligence, however, the foremost of these being to increase understanding and knowledge. The timely acquisition of intelligence can improve the quality of decision-making by reducing ignorance of the situation faced and enabling actions or decisions to be optimised. In order to keep Australians safe from foreign adversaries, we must be able to effectively inhibit external actors' ability to collect intelligence on Australia and our communities. This is a national security priority. As the methodologies of intelligence collection develop and change with the rapidly evolving technologies, so must our national security laws. The Richardson review was conducted as a response to this changing threat landscape to ensure that the legislative framework that we have in place effectively addresses the threat at hand. The Richardson review's examination of the legislative framework underpinning the national intelligence community is the first and largest since the Hope royal commissions considered the Australian intelligence community in the 1970s and 1980s. I would like to thank Mr Richardson for the important work he did on this. He has been, over his career, one of Australia's best public servants. That is no mean feat, especially when you see the calibre of our current bureaucrats, including the Director-General of Security and the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs.

For over 200 days the doors of businesses have been shut and Victorians have been confined to their homes. On top of this, the restrictions that dwell long after the lockdowns are finished have had devastating impacts on many, many industries and businesses. These devastating impacts on the social, emotional and financial state of Victorians are effects we cannot ignore. Businesses are struggling. People are struggling. Doctors are having to put young girls on antidepressants in record numbers. What Victorian businesses are going through is a never-ending night with little hope of reaching the day. Businesses in Victoria need to see a light. They need proper support from their state government. What is currently being offered by the state government in Victoria is simply not enough. At the moment, the current lockdown is to be extended to 2 September, making a total of 214 days during which Victoria will have been in lockdown, and we have no doubt that it will be extended from there.

What has occurred in New South Wales has shown us that the delta variant is much harder to control and that these lockdowns may extend for much longer than we may hope. Make no mistake; businesses are closing. Every day I hear of family businesses that are in trouble. The hopes and dreams of thousands of hardworking Victorians are being crushed before our eyes. Years of hard work, sacrifice and dedication to build a viable and sustainable business are slipping through the tips of their fingers through no fault of their own. We must stand with them.

Yesterday, I spoke with Rick Jamieson, who runs Australia's biggest event company, Harry the hirer. That company is an icon in Victoria. The events industry in Victoria, and probably in Australia, wouldn't exist—it couldn't exist—without that company. Lockdowns have taken away the jobs of a thousand people who work for Rick. He has been using his own savings to keep the company going. Without the grand final, the Caulfield Cup or the Spring Racing Carnival, Rick says he may have to close his doors forever. He is doing everything in his power not to. The IP and the knowledge that he has within that corporation is what fundamentally underpins the events industry in Victoria. Just so we're clear, if Harry the hirer closed its doors, so would the whole of the Victorian events industry. I would ask the events minister, Martin Pakula, whether he knows or cares about what that means for our great state. That is not just no events this year; this means no more events for years to come. Events, I think every Victorian would agree, are the colourful fabric of Victorian life and this would be truly devastating.

This bill makes a number of important changes to laws to implement reforms to the administration and oversight of organisations that have deductible gift recipient, or DGR, status, and it also delivers on the Morrison government's commitment to amend Australia's offshore banking unit regime to address concerns raised by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices.

The bill is made up of two schedules. Schedule 1 amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to require non-government entities to seek endorsement as deductible gift recipients to be a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the ACNC, or operated by a registered charity. Ancillary funds and specifically listed entities will be exempt from this requirement. The requirement to be a charity already applies to the majority of the general DGR categories, and this measure will amend the special conditions applying to the remaining general DGR categories. The majority of the general DGR categories currently have a special condition requiring that the fund authority or institution be a registered charity or an Australian government agency or to be operated by a registered charity or an Australian government agency.

For the remaining 11 general DGR categories, these requirements do not need to be satisfied for the fund authority or institution to be entitled to DGR endorsement. These categories can include organisations on the Register of Environmental Organisations and the Register of Cultural Organisations. As charity registration is not a precondition for DGR endorsement for these categories, there can be inconsistent governance and reporting requirements for these DGRs. Making charity registration a precondition for DGR endorsement across the general DGR categories will improve the consistency of regulation, governance and oversight of DGRs whilst also reducing unnecessary compliance.

I rise to speak on the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Titles Administration and Other Measures) Bill 2021 and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Regulatory Levies) Amendment Bill 2021. The Australian offshore oil and gas industry is subject to some of the world's most stringent and rigorous environmental regulation. The industry is committed to adhering to these regulations and to operating in an environmentally safe manner. As I have worked with many energy companies across my career, both upstream and downstream, I have seen firsthand how hard those companies work to ensure that the environment is protected throughout their operations. The industry currently applies some of the most extensive environmental management strategies to ensure its operations are conducted safely and responsibly. It is clear that the industry works to the highest standards and has a long history of world-class responsible environmental management.

It is important to recognise that Australia's offshore oil and gas industry has supported Australia's energy security and economic activity for over 50 years. Our economy has benefited from the export earnings, investment and employment opportunities that it has delivered for Australians. In my home state of Victoria, there are 23 offshore platforms and installations in the Bass Strait. This includes the new Marlon B platform and the Kipper subsea wells, which feed a network of around 600 kilometres of underwater pipelines.

These projects will provide Australians and Victorians with good jobs and economic support for Australia for decades to come, just as the creation of natural gas production and distribution in Victoria in the late 1960s along with cheap electricity from coal in those basins made the state a manufacturing powerhouse. With the moratoriums that have been in place in Victoria over recent years, the state is being brought to its knees on energy supply, and we need to correct that. But we need to do it with proper environmental regulation. If we are to properly support our resources sector, we must have the right regulatory framework in place. This will allow the sector to operate efficiently and to the safest standards possible. Having the right regulatory framework in place also ensures that best practice is followed through the entire life cycle of a project. As Australia's offshore petroleum industry continues to mature, there will be an increased focus on management of mid- to late-life assets. This includes managing declining production while preparing to decommission offshore facilities, wells and pipelines. This is sensible foresight by the government to deal with normal and expected changes occurring in the industry. There are particular points of the life cycle of any industry when regulatory frameworks and practices need to adapt to the changing circumstances. As the times change, the conditions in which we operate change, and we must change with those changing conditions. For the offshore oil and gas industry, that time is now and, as a government, we are responding accordingly. We must be prepared to deal with the future challenges that we will face as this industry begins to mature to ensure that the taxpayer, the shareholders, the workers and the natural environment are protected. These are all important considerations which these bills will address.

I rise to respond to Senator McAllister and Senator Keneally because they've just got it plain wrong. They were so silent last year when Victoria was in lockdown; we did not hear a peep out of them. There was not one peep about how badly managed the pandemic was in Victoria.

Senator McAllister was quoting Professor Blakely just now. He was the one who was calling for better contact tracing in Victoria last year. Victoria has had over 200 days of lockdown. So when you're banging on about the people in south-western Sydney, think about the people in Victoria. Think about the people in Melbourne who have done it so much tougher than on your patch. I have full empathy and sympathy for the people in south-western Sydney. The government has been doing an exceptional job of getting the vaccine out to protect those people.

I was flicking through some materials over the weekend and I pulled out a media report from 5 November 2020. It was talking about how the government had just completed its fourth order for a total of 135 million vaccines for Australians and for our Pacific neighbours; that's more than five times the population of Australia. Now, if we look at the figures of what vaccine supply we have agreements for, there are 255 million doses ordered or under contract, plus over $25 million for the COVAX facility. There is going to be more than enough to go around. There is more than enough now.

No-one in this place would be surprised to know that we on the government benches believe that slavery in any form is an abhorrent practice that must be eliminated. No-one, no matter their race, age, sex, gender, nationality or ethnicity should be subject to having their basic freedoms being taken away from them. The Morrison government believes in freedom of the individual and the importance of this in a good society. The government does support the intent and acknowledges the importance of this issue in this bill, including the need for transparency and appropriate action in response to instances of modern slavery and human rights abuses.

However, the government does not support all aspects of the proposed Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Forced Labour) Bill 2021 and, instead, recommends that the departments continue working with domestic stakeholders and international counterparts to address modern slavery wherever it is identified and to collectively respond to reduce and eliminate its practice, including through a review of the Modern Slavery Act 2018. This act creates a robust transparency framework to drive business action and to identify and address modern slavery in global supply chains.

There is no doubt that business has a large job ahead of it. With 3,000 companies in Australia due to report, it is absolutely amazing the work that our companies are doing. There are an estimated 40 million men, women and children in modern slavery today and it can be found in almost every country in the world, according to the International Labour Organization and the Walk Free foundation, who I will come back to later. With increasing globalised trade, it affects almost every business through those interconnected supply chains. This is not just limited to one region; this is a whole-of-world problem, and the interconnectedness of those supply chains is an incredibly difficult thing to unwind and to get transparency of, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be doing it.

I thank the resources industry for the work they are doing in this space. Given the global nature of supply chains for minerals and resources companies, they are leading some of the best transparency work on this. I call out and thank Mr Andrew Forrest for the work he is doing, not only through his mining company but also through the Walk Free Foundation that he founded and funds, and the important work that they are doing in bringing transparency to supply chains, not just in the mining industry but right across the globe with their anti-slavery index.

The role of the Australian government is to ensure that all Australians are safe, secure and free from the threat of violence so that they are able to pursue their individual interests. It is the government's responsibility to ensure that our sovereign rights remain untainted by malicious actors and groups. Australia's current national terrorism threat level is listed as probable. This means that there is credible intelligence, assessed by our security agency, that indicates that individuals or groups have the intent and/or capability to conduct a terrorist attack in Australia. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that we live in a world where there are those who wish to take what we have and destroy what we have built.

We have world-class intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies who work day in and day out to protect us from these threats. These agencies are equipped with some of the brightest and most dedicated minds in Australia, using some of the most advanced technologies to fight these threats. To ensure Australians are safe, we must ensure that these agencies have correct legislative frameworks to ensure they can do their job effectively and help us ensure that all Australians are safe.

This is why the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Bill 2021 is vital and must be passed without delay. To delay passing of this bill could threaten the lives of every Australian. This bill provides for the continuation of key counterterrorism powers that have helped since its enactment to protect the lives of Australians and our communities. In response to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and its 2021 review of declared area provisions, the bill will extend the sunsetting of declared area provisions in the Criminal Code Act 1995 to 7 September 2024 and amend the Intelligence Services Act 2001 to provide for the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to review these provisions by 7 January 2024, ahead of their new sunsetting date. The declared areas offence forms an integral part of the Australian government's efforts to stop the flow of foreign fighters and also mitigates the risk that returning foreign fighters pose to Australians. The bill will also extend the 7 September 2021 sunsetting of AFP counterterrorism powers until 7 December 2022 and emergency stop, search and seizure powers in the Crimes Act 1914.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many valuable lessons. Many of these have been tough lessons to learn, but as a government we have shown that we are capable of learning as new data and more dangerous variants have emerged. One of the lessons that this pandemic has taught us is that, at times of international crisis, when fear is gripping the world, access to essential goods is critical to the security of our nation. The closure of borders, limited supply chains and the hoarding of supplies are all examples of how we have seen other nations react in response to this crisis. Not all of these reactions have been in Australia's national interest. It is therefore critical that we have sovereign capability to manufacture and provide essential goods, whether they be PPE, vaccines or other items essential in our supply chains. The lessons we learn from this pandemic will be vital to how we respond to other crises, not just other pandemics.

CSL's ability to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine domestically has shown us the benefits of having this type of industry in Australia. I would encourage those opposite to stop fearmongering, stop promoting vaccine hesitancy and get behind this amazing vaccine. I have. It is protecting me. While we have been blessed to be able to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia, which has been integral to our vaccine rollout and to saving countless lives around the world, we have seen a number of examples of other nations withholding vaccine supplies at the expense of nations such as ours, but more importantly at the expense of poor countries with no sovereign capability. The EU can never again lecture other countries on the basis of morals. This highlights the value of having domestic capability to research and manufacture medical technology locally. We must be prepared for the next pandemic and we must be prepared to stand on our own two feet.

As we have seen from around the world, vaccinations have been key to living with COVID-19. If we are to ensure the health and security of our nation, we must be able to produce our own vaccines and produce the latest and most effective medical technologies. We've seen throughout this pandemic that our economic security and national security are inextricably linked to our health security. We cannot have one without the other. While the Morrison government has handled this pandemic and we have managed to have fewer deaths, more people in jobs and an economy that is performing better than it was pre-pandemic, we might not be so lucky next time. The Australian government has made substantial investments to support access to safe and effective vaccines for all Australians.

Just this week, as you would have noted, the Therapeutic Goods Administration provisionally approved the Moderna vaccine, which is another example of an mRNA technology vaccine like the Pfizer vaccine. Going beyond the current pandemic, mRNA has the capability to be translated into broad therapeutics and vaccines for diseases like cancer, HIV, the flu and cardiovascular disease. To ensure that Australians have access to the most advanced medical technology, we must develop a sovereign capability to research and manufacture mRNA technology in Australia. This must be done not just in response to the current crisis but also because of the capability it will provide us to protect and treat Australians from future health threats, as well as current difficult-to-treat diseases.

Work is currently underway to create mRNA technology around the world to address illnesses such as cancer, HIV, Zika virus, Epstein-Barr virus and autoimmune disorders, as well as cellular engineering and protein replacement therapies. Not only that; the development of a sovereign capability to create mRNA technology will create the potential for thousands of associated jobs and for great benefits to our economy. However, constructing this sovereign capability is no easy task. Such a vital and critical undertaking is a complex task, and where Australia decides to place and operate an mRNA facility is a critical decision for the future of the nation. An mRNA manufacturing complex requires the best medical research ecosystem and support. It needs to be located somewhere which has a proven pharmaceutical research capability, and it requires a workforce with skills in complex precision pharmaceutical manufacturing. There is only one state in Australia which ticks all these boxes, and it is Victoria, my

This morning, we saw an act of complete bastardry against the Australian people here at Australian Parliament House. The Greens support group Extinction Rebellion vandalised this place—the people's house, as it is known. This is what happens when you choose slogans over actions. Labor and the Greens have continually used slogans. We, the Morrison government, choose actions—actions like beating our Kyoto target by 439 million tonnes; actions like having the most rooftop solar photovoltaic in the world; actions like reducing 639 million tonnes of carbon emissions in the last two years, the equivalent of taking all Australian cars—that is 14.7 million cars—off the road; actions like $20 billion of committed investment in new clean energy, to drive over $80 billion of public and private innovation, creating an estimated 160,000 jobs. We are a government of actions, not slogans—actions that actually reduce emissions, not destroy jobs or impose costs on Australian households, businesses and industries.

The acts of vandalism are typical of the other side of this chamber. It's their approach; it's all noise and no action. When it comes to addressing an issue such as climate change, only meaningful action will deliver the results. Slogans won't do it. The members opposite here, who have celebrated this morning's acts of bastardry, should be ashamed of themselves, and I trust that the ACT Magistrates Court will deal with the rest.

I rise to condemn the utterly odorous statements made last week by Mr Julian Burnside where he compared the treatment of Palestinians to the German treatment of the Jews during the Second World War. This vile attempt to equate the people of Israel with modern history's most disgusting acts is atrocious and shows that voters made the right decision to reject him at the 2019 election. This is not the first time that the former Greens' candidate has made vile comments equating people to Nazis. Indeed, in 2018 he shared doctored images of Minister Dutton superimposed with a Nazi officer's uniform. It seems as though, even after the backlash of that incident, he has not learned his lesson or sought to educate himself on the matter.

I suggest that Mr Burnside stops using the Holocaust whenever he has criticism of Israel or their policies, especially as, by his own admission, he is yet to even visit Israel and experience, look at and learn about the situation on the ground. His lack of understanding of this issue is clear. It's unfathomable that he would still make these comments before educating himself.

I was last in Israel in December 2019. I learnt so much from my time on the ground there. What you learn from being there goes to explain a lot of what happens on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. I suggest Mr Burnside follow suit and visit the region, meet the people and educate himself to see why such comments leave such a vile taste in one's mouth. These comments not only destroy the promise he made previously to Holocaust survivors after his previous disgraceful tweets but also unnecessarily open old wounds that many people suffer from and throw dirt in their face.

Senator David Van speaking on Victorian business strain due to Victoria's sixth lockdown