In the media
Crikey
Their new role is a difficult one. Despite parliamentary training to get them across procedures, they’ve faced an uphill battle, from culture shock at the way fellow politicians speak and interact with one another, the lack of a code of conduct for parliamentarians, having their staffing levels slashed, and issues with getting questions asked and answered during question time.
“There’s no place anywhere else in this country that you would be in a meeting and have people yelling at each other across the front of you while you’re trying to talk,” North Sydney member Kylea Tink told Crikey. “It’s a really intense environment.”
The crossbench has also faced questions on transparency. Tink was questioned over her shareholdings in two fossil fuel companies, Viva Energy and Beach Petroleum; Mackellar’s Dr Sophie Scamps over assets in a family trust; and in February Warringa member Zali Steggall admitted $100,000 in donations from a coal investor was incorrectly recorded (which has since been corrected).
The level of scrutiny and attention that came with the controversy was a bit of a shock for Tink. “I wasn’t prepared for the complete loss of anonymity when I came into this role,” she told Crikey. Around $6000 of shares, she added, were purchased in April — before she entered the political race. Since the investments were revealed, Tink has claimed she was planning to use them to attend annual general meetings as a shareholder activist. The shares have since been divested, she said, with the small profits donated to climate advocacy group Market Forces.
“I’m just a person and I am going to do things that will disappoint people,” she said. “One of the things I think is missing in our political environment generally in Australia is the capacity for us to grow … From my perspective, I’ve undertaken to be transparent.”
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Despite growing ranks opposing the bill, a ban on social media for under 16s passed the Senate late on the final sitting day of the year. In a radio interview about the ban, Kylea warns that the Bill "doesn't do what it says on the tin".
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The New York Times covers Australia's new social media law, noting that how the restriction will be enforced online remains an open question. Kylea has said that law would stop short of holding social media companies accountable for the safety of the product they are providing. “They are not fixing the potholes; they are just telling our kids there won’t be any cars,” she is quoted as saying.
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Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has acknowledged the work of Kylea and others on the crossbench in working towards ways to address Australia's housing crisis. Kylea has described the Build to Rent legislation, which was developed and passed with the support of a broad coalition of parliamentarians, industry groups and social services organisations, as "a milestone in moving ourselves forward as a nation ... This is the best of public policy development: when we lean in together to overcome our differences, to ultimately put the solution at the front of what we're trying to achieve for Australians."
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ABC News, 27 November 2024
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Labor’s legislation backlog leaves genetic discrimination ban stalled
The Australian, 26 November 2024
The Labor Government will not legislate a ban on genetic discrimination by the end of the year, despite earlier commitments to do so. Kylea, who played a major role in advocating for the ban, has questioned the delay, to which the Government has responded that it plans to deliver the ban within this term.
'A dark day in our history': Refugee advocates warn Labor laws put thousands at risk
ABC News, 26 November 2024
Kylea says the Government's proposal to give the immigration minister sweeping new deportation powers worsens Australia's "egregious human rights abuse" of refugees. "As a nation, we've been in breach of international human rights law for nearly three decades now in the way that we treat people who seek asylum in our country… Labor had the opportunity to .show that we are better than where previous governments have chosen to take us, but they've taken the coward's route and decided to kowtow to the opposition."
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