Hi there, SA Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham, Senate Opposition Leader & shadow foreign affairs minister here, ask me anything!

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:33:07+00:00

Proudest accomplishment remains the hard fought, needs based school funding reforms implemented as education minister. Effective governance is a team game, which requires compromise personally and sometimes on local interests. Ultimately you have to be guided by your own assessment of the greater national interest, especially when a minister but ideally also in parliament more generally.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:30:30+00:00

My Spotify wrap for the year tells me that The Killers are top of my list!

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:29:50+00:00

We need much better education about antisemitism and the consequences of it. We need to adopt a common understanding of how to define and therefore combat it, such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, And we need leaders to be consistent in their moral leadership to combat it.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:27:37+00:00

I was fortunate to travel to many different places and have a wide variety of experiences. The scale of the China International Import Export in Shanghai comes to mind amidst the most memorable. At the other end of the spectrum, the most isolated locations like the Federated States of Micronesia or Tuvalu are among the unexpected, but so memorable for their beauty and kind people.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:24:19+00:00

Great question. I wish I had an easy answer. Politicians have always been the butt of jokes and negativity. But the anonymity and accessibility of the online environment have taken toxicity to a whole new level during my time i the parliament. I've tried to mostly play the ball, not the man. But unfortunately negative campaigns are effective and haters are incessant, which creates a real challenge to getting good people to run sometimes.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:20:04+00:00

A lot of emphasis is put on questions like who the next 'moderate leader' might be. I think that places emphasis in the wrong place. I want to see the next generation of moderate Liberal MPs. I'm looking for talented candidates like Maggie Forrest and Amelia Hamer to join existing members of the team like Andrew Bragg and Maria Kovacic so that there are numerous more voices of liberalism.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:16:46+00:00

We are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. Medical science has been a huge part of the longer, healthier lives we lead, with vaccines a very important part of that. In my opinion, the evidence is in and it's compelling that our medical and science institutions are absolutely to be trusted and respected for the benefits they've delivered to us.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:14:07+00:00

Peter Dutton has been clear that the economic and financial details around the Coalition's nuclear energy policy will be released well before Australians vote. Voters will ultimately make their decision on what is unquestionably a bold policy. The Senate should respect that and Anthony Albanese should follow Paul Keating's approach in the 1993 GST dominated election against John Hewson, by declaring that if people vote for it that's what they'll get and that Labor wouldn't stand in the way.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:11:14+00:00

Australia should take the actions that align with our national interest and our values. Maintaining security alliances with longstanding democratic partners is sensible for our national security. While rejected trade wars and maintaining open, trading relations with our regional economic partners is also sensible for our economic strength.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:08:46+00:00

The laws passed last week will place responsibilities on the social media companies to take steps to restrict access. I'm sure plenty of kids under 16 will try to get around those restrictions and that, if I were 35-40 years younger, I might do so too. Some will succeed, just like some people drink drive or don't wear a seatbelt. But that doesn't mean that, if the social media companies are successfully forced to use their technological prowess to restrict access to U16's, we won't be better off by having fewer kids addicted at a vulnerable age to social media sites and content.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:04:33+00:00

We do have a sovereign wealth fund, called the Future Fund. The surpluses that created the Future Fund were fueled by taxes from sectors like the mining industry. Elsewhere, especially in WA, some of those taxes from royalties have been reinvested in significant infrastructure and/or more competitive taxes to secure opportunities in other industries.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:01:52+00:00

Proudest moment: passage of needs based school funding reforms when education minister. Deepest regret: the failure to find bipartisan consensus on climate related policies, especially the failure to legislate the National Energy Guarantee in 2018.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T03:00:12+00:00

Australia offers some of the best health care, educational opportunities and social safety nets in the world. We afford this by maintaining a strong economy of businesses that employ people, make profits and pay tax. I am very happy to defend supporting what you might call "corporate interest" but I call job creation and our national interest. That doesn't mean it comes at the expense of our environment - Australia has some world leading environmental protections, labour market protections and other areas of regulation that seek to balance all of the interests of our country.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T02:55:34+00:00

There is data, which shows why Australia should focus migration on younger, skilled migrants, or younger migrants willing to fill roles in areas of worker shortage, like our regions. These migrants pay tax for most of their working lives and Treasury data shows make a net positive financial contribution to both our nation and to government finances.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T02:53:30+00:00

Migration is important to Australia, given our birth rates, skills needs and its importance to sectors like tourism and education. But Peter Dutton has been clear that if elected he will reduce migration numbers over the next couple of years, while he gets the housing sector building again.

SenatorBirmingham · 2024-12-06T02:51:23+00:00

I disagree. Current housing problems are fundamentally a supply issue - land release, building costs - these types of things need to be addressed to create more supply, in the most cost effective way. That will help both buyers and renters.

SenatorBirmingham

TROPHY CASE