MARK DREYFUS MP

These kidnappings are an impediment to lasting peace in the region. They are a crime against the laws of war and they are a personal tragedy for these young men and their families.

The use of torture is an abuse by the state of its powers, but it is worse than that: it is a denial of the humanity of the victim. It is the antithesis of those values on which we base our social and political systems. It is degrading and dehumanising, and its elimination demands international attention and action.

This amendment, though uncontroversial and highly technical, has the opportunity to change the manner and form of laws that as law makers in this place we deal with on an everyday basis. This is good progress to ensure that our statute books are gender neutral, and

With an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide living within 100 kilometres of a coastline and 50 per cent of the world's population likely to do so by 2030, it is essential to safeguard Australian coasts with the amendments introduced by this bill, which I commend to the House.

It is the sound policies of the Rudd Labor government and the neglect by the former government that the people of Gippsland will have in their minds when they go to vote this Saturday.

In simple terms, these amendments alter section 79 of the Judiciary Act and restore to the states the protection of limitation periods in state laws which put a time limit on suing state governments to recover taxes paid under a law later found to be invalid.

Despite dramatic change and growth in Australia as a nation over the last 100 years, Australia's Constitution remains very much as it was originally drafted

More than most other areas of policy, urban planning calls for an active role from government because we have a collective interest in the form of our cities.

This bill serves two purposes: it enables the recognition of the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat as a memorial of national significance and it provides us with a mechanism for recognising other memorials as nationally significant.

The re-establishment of a real role for the Commonwealth in the field of dental health, which is what this legislation represents, is a reflection of this government's belief in the importance of the role of the national government in public health.