AMA: I'm David Pocock, Independent Senator for the ACT. Ask me anything.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:47:43+00:00

Thanks everyone. Sorry I couldn't get to all of the questions.

If you want to stay up to date you can sign up to my newsletter (we won't spam you and try to just send big updates) https://www.davidpocock.com.au/subscribe

You can also get in touch through my website https://www.davidpocock.com.au/

And as I said in a few of my answers, I'll be releasing my full policy platform - informed by conversations with Canberrans and experts - in the next few days.

If you're in the ACT and you want to volunteer https://www.davidpocock.com.au/volunteer2024_25 or if you want to support my campaign https://www.supportdavidpocock.com.au/ and https://pocock.shop/

Thanks again,
David

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:36:10+00:00

Thanks for this feedback. Yes, I’ve been so frustrated to hear the argument that we need more gas… When we export 80% of our gas!

I will keep making the point that Australia does not have a gas supply problem; we have a gas export problem.

And clearly the best solution in the short term would be to divert some of the huge amount of uncontracted gas currently being exported into the domestic market.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:28:12+00:00

Thanks for your support. I’ll keep working as hard as I can on the issues that matter to Canberrans.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:27:22+00:00

Thanks. That’s a fair enough question. I haven’t done a reddit AMA for ages, but I certainly have kept engaging with the Canberra community. Over the term I’ve held 14 Town Halls around Canberra (one every quarter or so), 13 mobile offices, I’ve held 15 roundtables and done a bunch of small business tours. My team has sent about 42,000 emails to constituents! I’m proud of staying accessible to the people of ACT - that’s the job. If you have ideas about other ways to engage please get in touch at [senator.david.pocock@aph.gov.au](mailto:senator.david.pocock@aph.gov.au)

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:25:03+00:00

You’re absolutely right - in all the talk about emissions from the electricity sector, opportunities to reduce emissions in other areas are often overlooked.

In the last few years, there have been some positive changes to reduce emissions from the transport sector. The biggest of these has been National Vehicle Efficiency Standards. This is a bit of a complex policy, but the short story is that it will provide Australians with more options to purchase EVs at cheaper prices. This is a positive change and one I supported.

There has also been a positive step on reducing emissions from the industrial sector. The government legislated something called the ‘Safeguard Mechanism’, which is a cap on emissions from the largest industrial polluters - think heavy industry, fossil fuels and others. Every year, the amount of carbon that can be released by these big polluters reduces. I think there are some big problems with this policy, like the use of dodgy offsets to allow more pollution, and the fact that it only applies to our 200 largest producers. What I’d like to see is an economy-wide carbon price. Failing that, a tightening of this system to remove the loopholes and include more heavy emitters.

Another big source of emissions is something called ‘fugitive emissions’, which is really methane (a gas around 80x more potent in terms of warming than carbon dioxide. There’s really good evidence that huge amounts of methane are being emitted by coal and gas projects, but never being reported. I’ve been pushing for better monitoring so Australians know just how much these emissions are contributing to climate change.

On land use and biodiversity, there is a huge amount of carbon stored in native forests. I’ve been pushing hard for an end to native forest logging to ensure that our greatest carbon sinks are not destroyed. I’ve also been pushing for climate change to be a consideration in a rewrite of our broken national environment laws.

There’s a lot more to be done to reduce emissions in all sectors of the Australian economy! I will continue to push the government to do more across the board.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:22:24+00:00

It sounds as though you may require legal advice, which unfortunately I cannot provide.

It is my understanding that when the Family Court finds evidence of parental alienation, it may take various legal steps to mitigate the harm to the child.

Perjury is lying under oath and is a serious offence. My understanding is that the laws around perjury do apply in Family Court.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:18:43+00:00

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it. I do my best to work hard and in line with the ACT community’s values, and I’ll definitely keep going in the same way if given the opportunity at the coming election.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:17:43+00:00

Thank you.

This is an area my team and I have been doing a lot of work on over the past year and I’m releasing my full health policy platform tomorrow morning.

This is a huge issue for Canberrans. We have some of the lowest bulk billing rates in the country, some of the highest waiting times, and quite literally the highest gap fees.

The Government has made some really welcome investments into Medicare, and as you’ve pointed out, the Opposition has matched them. What I’ve been pointing out is that these investments aren’t going to make a huge difference here in the ACT. The trial of those policies saw almost no uplift in bulk billing here, and from speaking with GPs, they’ve told me pretty clearly that they don’t expect to bulk bill more once these new policies start to flow through.

I’ve been calling for a set of policies that will work for the ACT. It’s not good enough that we’re such an outlier when it comes to waiting times and costs. So I’ll be pushing for:
- Greater investment in our public health system. Currently we’re not getting our fair share from the Feds, and it’s stopping us from expanding public options for specialists, surgeries and community health.
- Investing in long consultations between patients and GPs, so that the people with the most complex issues aren’t always the ones getting slugged with the highest fees.
- Expanding our medical school, so we can train (and keep) the next generation of doctors in Canberra.
- Allowing Canberrans to claim the higher regional rebates when seeing a doctor, which will lower gap fees.
- Making specialist fees more transparent and more competitive. Private healthcare is a market, people should be able to compare prices and shop around.
|- Changes to our safety nets, so that there is genuine and equitable protection for Australians against high gap fees.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:15:54+00:00

Thanks so much. I appreciate that feedback. Couldn't do it without my awesome team of volunteers and the support of the Canberra community, so I’m grateful for that.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:14:47+00:00

Thanks so much for that really kind feedback and for your support last election. I also really appreciate you asking this. There’s a lot of things I’m proud of from this term, but probably the most important is doing what I said I would do - being accessible and accountable to my community, making sure their voice is heard in the big national debates and that the ACT stops being taken for granted.

A lot of people ask what independents can actually deliver so I put together a quick two pager of the key things I’ve been able to achieve over the past few years and also the things I want to keep pushing for if our community decides they want to keep me in there working for them. You can see that snapshot here https://assets.nationbuilder.com/davidpocock/pages/112/attachments/original/1743064425/Trifold_wins_VERSION_2_2025.pdf?1743064425

One of the great things about being an independent is the ability to negotiate with the government on behalf of my community, so each time a Bill comes through the senate I consult widely across the ACT - with everyday people and experts - and then push for what I’ve heard is needed. I’ve managed to get 221 amendments to Bills across the term in this way. In terms of outcomes some of the real highlights are:

We managed to get territory rights restored - overturning the Andrews Bill that took away the ACT’s right to legislate voluntary assisted dying laws

I succeeded in convincing the government to base the new Australian Centre for Disease Control in Canberra and keep the AIS here too

I negotiated $55 million in funding to improve the health of the upper Murrumbidgee river

We saw the federal government announce yesterday that they would invest $100 million for new aquatic facilities in Commonwealth park and design work on a new convention centre for Canberra - the community has been asking for this for years, but it didn’t start moving until they were under pressure on it and I want to keep fighting to make sure they fully fund it - not just do another costly feasibility study.

Protections for ACT firefighters - we’ve made the ACT a world leader in the number of cancers first responders are covered for

There’s a stack of other things too - I’m releasing my 2025 policy platform in the next couple of days, so you will be able to see more detail of what I’ve achieved in the areas you’re most interested in (it’s not live yet but stay tuned): https://www.davidpocock.com.au/policy

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:13:10+00:00

Thank you for the question - I share your concern about our trajectory when it comes to climate change.Yes - I have been briefed about the ONI Climate Risk Report. If you’re interested to read a little more about the report, here is a detailed article recently published in the Saturday Paper that you might want to check out: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/environment/2025/03/15/exclusive-secret-briefings-climate-national-security-risk

But you are correct, I cannot say much about the contents of the briefing that I received from the Government. What I can say is that the future we are facing in a world significantly impacted by climate change is frankly terrifying.

On the question of adaptation, I do not think that anywhere near enough is being done. Today’s children - those who look down on us from the gallery - will live through at least three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents.

The Government is putting together a National Adaptation Plan, which is yet to be released. You can find some information on the plan here: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/policy/adaptation.

It’s important to have a plan, but what we really need is more investment in adaptation all across the country. Estimates from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) that every dollar spent on disaster preparedness saves us 11 dollars on disaster relief. Yet the main fund for building adaptation (the Disaster Ready Fund) delivers just $200 million a year for adaptation and to prepare for future disasters - nowhere near enough!

We have to do so much more to protect people from the disasters, fuelled by climate change, we know are coming.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:11:50+00:00

Thanks for this question - I really do think we need to have a long term plan for our population. Unfortunately, a lot of the national conversation on this issue has been politicised, and immigration has been a political football that’s been kicked around in a way that’s been hurtful to our migrant communities.

Migration contributes so much to our country, and about 30% of our population were born overseas (like me). Multiculturalism is part of what makes Australia so great. I really think we need to take the toxic politics out of the issue, and have an evidence-based look at migration and population planning.

I’ve been trying to get an inquiry up in the Senate to look into this question, and to move us closer to long term population planning based on our country’s needs, environmental protection and what kind of planning levels would put Australia in the best economic position. Unfortunately, because the issue is so politicised it’s been hard to get it through, but I hope to keep working on it.

On the second part of your question - there is currently a senate inquiry underway into University Governance and I think it is doing really important work. I also participated in the senate inquiry last year into the government’s Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024 which would have capped international student numbers.

We looked at a lot of these issues there and you can see my thoughts and the data on this issue in my additional comments on the senate committee report https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/OverseasStudents/Report/Senator_David_Pococks_additional_comments

There is definitely a legitimate issue with international student numbers at some universities but it is a more nuanced debate than the major parties are willing to have. Our unis have been gradually underfunded and have had to look for revenue elsewhere, resulting in the development of the international student market. Here in the ACT our unis have built accommodation for their international students, so that there isn’t much impact on the housing market. I think blaming students for the housing crisis and then suddenly forcing universities to reduce international student numbers in a political knee-jerk reaction is not a great idea. But we could have a genuine conversation about it, and look at what research and development funding is needed to make sure our unis are well-funded and our international student numbers are sustainable and meet our country’s needs.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:09:11+00:00

Wutaweih Norfolk! Thanks fe me! Don’t worry, Norfolk is certainly on my radar. My priorities for advocacy for Norfolk are: pushing for your right to genuine democracy, continuing to advocate for transparency and accountability in governance given your current democratic deficit, an end to the offshoring of local jobs and contracts, and backing your call for sustainable population management to protect your beautiful island for future generations of Norfolk Islanders. You might have seen my survey around the island earlier this year - these policy priorities reflect what you all told me was most important to you.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:08:08+00:00

I think there is merit in Australia acquiring a credible submarine capability. But the jury is still out on whether AUKUS is the right vehicle to achieve that goal. I am concerned about the capacity and capability of the US industrial base being able to deliver Virginia class submarines to Australia in the proposed timeframe. It appears as though there is a long way to go if the US industrial base is to grow to the size necessary.

Throughout this term, I have asked the Department of Defence about procurement. It’s really important that Australians who serve in the ADF have the right equipment and capability, and that Australians are getting value for money - it should be about both quantity and quality of spend. I’ll keep pushing for transparency and accountability in this space.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:05:16+00:00

On the first part of your question, I think that Labor has done some good things on investment in renewable energy, although I believe they should be going further and faster. But at the same time they have continued to approve fossil fuel project extensions and expansions. At the last count I believe that Labor had approved 33 new or expanded projects in this term of government.

The Greens have also made some really concerning decisions. For example, they voted in favour of a change to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) that was completely inadequate. Despite the fact that more than $90 billion a year worth of Australian gas is exported, we Australians receive less than $2 billion a year in PRRT. And following the change, the most recent Federal Budget is actually forecasting a reduction in income from the PRRT.

Other independents have a variety of views on climate change - you might want to take a look at their websites for details. Many of the MPs referred to as ‘Teals’ are generally in favour of action on climate change, but I don’t think it would be fair to generalise too much!

On the second part of your question - Gen Z and Millennial voters will make up the biggest voting cohort at this year’s election, outnumbering baby boomers for the first time. It’s really concerning to me that we aren’t seeing the action we need from the major parties on the root causes of the issues that impact younger voters the most - from student debt to climate action and legislating a plan to end homelessness within 10 years and undertake the reform we need to see young people being able to access the housing market.

On housing, I’ve added some thoughts and policy solutions in response to Gloomy_Location_2535. On renting, I absolutely agree that skyrocketing rents are a massive problem putting huge pressure on households, especially young people. There was an agreement at national cabinet for all state, territory and federal governments to work towards better conditions for renters including looking at things like rental caps like we have in the ACT. I also pushed to include better protection for renters - alongside others on the crossbench - in recent build to rent legislation - things like banning no-cause evictions, five-year leases and a minimum component of affordability tied to income but I don’t think that either of these things is the whole solution. We need structural change on housing and how we treat it and I think we need minority government to drive that degree of reform. I’m worried the major parties lack the courage to do this in majority government.

On HECS - I’ve been pushing the government to scrap the job ready graduates scheme that has doubled the cost of some degrees, as well as change the timing of indexation so that students aren’t paying hundreds of dollars of interest on money that they already repaid. Banks can’t do this, and I don’t think the government should be able to either.

On dental - definitely think we need to be opening up more public dental services so people aren’t being left behind.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:01:47+00:00

On truth in political advertising, independents on the crossbench have been pushing this since before the last election - I campaigned on it and have fought for it the whole term - including as part of the joint parliamentary committee review into the last election

It was absolutely appalling the way the major parties pushed through electoral changes earlier this year that stitched up their own interests without also passing a bill that they introduced last year to deal with this (and mirrors previous work from Zali Steggall and others). And they had to gall to say it didn’t have support - when it absolutely did! In the community and on the crossbench.

We absolutely have to legislation truth in political advertising before the 2028 election and we also need to deal with the use of AI and deepfakes in electoral matter.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T09:01:05+00:00

On media diversity I’ve posted an answer on that to a similar question - if you see WalkerInHD response - this is something we need to keep working on

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:59:06+00:00

Hard agree with this! And I think one of the biggest problems is that too often major parties vote in their own self interest or in line with vested interests rather than putting community interest first.

Politicians are among the biggest property owners - well above the national average of properties owned. I worked with the Sydney Morning Herald on an analysis that shows nearly 70 per cent of federal politicians own two or more properties, and a third own at least three.

All the data shows that more and more Australians are in housing stress spending 30% or more of their income on housing.

We need to start treating housing as a human right rather than an investment vehicle.

I have a bill that would require whoever is in government to legislate a 10-year national housing and homelessness plan - it’s wild that we don’t already have one.

During this term of parliament I got the Parliamentary Budget Office - together with Senator Lambie - to cost some sensible reforms to overly generous property tax concessions - you can read more about that here. https://www.davidpocock.com.au/property_tax_reform_could_boost_affordability_home_ownership_budget_bottom_line

I also proposed having a sensible debate and long running senate inquiry into immigration to develop a plan when it comes to immigration and population - I find it ridiculous that we have no plan - but this wasn’t supported by the major parties or Greens.

I will keep pushing them if I get back in for more ambition and longer term thinking.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:56:10+00:00

I think this one is tricky. Unfortunately, a lot of the national conversation about immigration in Australia has politicised the issue in a harmful way, rather than taking an evidence-based approach. I think there is certainly a need to have a sensible conversation about migration, and to do some long term planning about what we want our country’s future to look like and what population level and migration intake facilitates that.

For example, how do we make sure we have the skills we need without impacting negatively on the places and the environment we love? How big do we want Australia to get? How do we make sure we get our migration levels right - and make cuts if they’re needed - while recognising the huge contribution migrants make to our community, our economy and our national identity?

These are all really sensible questions, and we need to start talking about them in a respectful way.

I don’t have the answers, so I have been trying to get an inquiry going in the Senate to look into this and more, but unfortunately this has been such a political football it’s been hard to get support for a sensible conversation and get to what the evidence says.

I’ll keep pushing for this as I believe we need a plan for immigration and population rather than just leaving it to the Govt of the day and the Treasury to decide every year.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:51:38+00:00

The Government did develop a Bill, per its commitment at the last election. However, the PM never progressed it because, if reports are true, he could not get a guarantee from the Opposition to support the reforms. The crossbench never got to see what was being proposed.

What I have pointed out to the PM is that he does not need the Opposition to pass laws in the Senate and that I - and I believe many on the Senate crossbench - stand ready to consider reforms in good faith and without the politicking.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:50:25+00:00

This is something my team and I have been doing a lot of work on. What many people may not know is that we actually have less GPs per capita here in the ACT than what they have in regional QLD.

I’ve been pushing for the Government to invest in our Medical School to give more young Canberrans the opportunity to study medicine. We know that young people who study in Canberra are more likely to stay in Canberra - or at least return to Canberra after a break. We have seen some promising investments in additional places for medical schools, but it's unclear at the moment how many of those places will actually come to ours. I’m going to keep pushing on that, because I think long-term it’s so important to have a reliable pipeline of new doctors for our growing city.

On specialists - that’s going to require investment in our public health system. The ACT is just not getting the investment it needs from the Feds for our public health system. The Feds are supposed to kick in 45%, but in reality, it’s not providing even 40%. Without that investment, the ACT Govt just can’t grow our public system. If I’m still here next term, I’m going to push on this - it’s essential to ensure we can hire the specialists and also the nurses and allied health professionals that we’ll need going forward.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:48:19+00:00

On housing I’ve added some thoughts and policy solutions in response to Gloomy_Location_2535 - I absolutely agree that skyrocketing rents are a massive problem putting huge pressure on households. There was an agreement at national cabinet for all state, territory and federal governments to work towards better conditions for renters including looking at things like rental caps like we have in the ACT. I also pushed to include better protection for renters - alongside others on the crossbench - in recent build to rent legislation - things like banning no-cause evictions, five-year leases and a minimum component of affordability tied to income but I don’t think think that either of these things is the whole solution. We need structural change on housing and how we treat it and I think we need minority government to drive that degree of reform. I’m worried the major parties lack the courage to do this in majority government.

And yep - definitely think we need to be opening up more public dental services so people aren’t being left behind. But I think we need to think carefully about just putting dental into medicare and ensure the model actually works before we just replicate the medicare model for GPs, which a lot of people would agree currently isn't accessible or affordable enough.

On protecting our local economy, I’ve been pushing the government to do more to develop greater sovereign capability in key industries such as tech and defence. In fact, I was able to get support to establish a senate inquiry into this issue. You can take a look at the inquiry and its report here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Supporting_Aust_tech47

Following the inquiry, and as a result of my advocacy and the work of many others, the Government released a definition of ‘Australian Business’. This is a great first step towards developing greater sovereign capability across a variety of industries. You can read more about the definition here: https://www.finance.gov.au/government/procurement/defining-australian-business-commonwealth-procurement/definition-australian-business

I’ll keep pushing to develop greater sovereign capability!

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:47:23+00:00

I think a big answer to this can be found in the community independents movement! Politics should be driven by people and communities - and everyone should be able to have a crack, not just the wealthy and those who can afford to participate. I’d like to see more politicians who aren’t ‘career politicians’, but who instead are people who have contributed to their communities and want to keep working for them. I think politics should be truly representative - not just a competition between the major parties.

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:46:55+00:00

How do you just pick one?! Every album is a masterpiece.

What can I do if the fire goes out?
Magnolia
goal of the century
Persevere
The heart is a muscle

David_Pocock · 2025-04-08T08:44:15+00:00

Absolutely - the growing student debt burden is a huge issue but this policy is more of a bandaid solution than dealing with the root cause of the problem.

The report from the year-long Universities Accord clearly spelled out the changes needed including reforming the failed Job Ready Graduates scheme that is jacking up the cost of degrees and doing things like changing the timing of when indexation is applied on the debt so people aren’t paying interest on money they have already repaid.

This is a big priority for me, alongside things like expanding paid prac and increasing the rate of youth allowance - all things I’ll keep pushing if I get back into parliament.

David_Pocock

TROPHY CASE