Australia's youngest-ever senator goes back to school
The South Australian senator attended Senate school on Wednesday, learning the ropes with the other new senators. They will all take their places in the upper house chamber on July 22, when federal parliament sits for the first time since the national poll.
At an age when many of her peers are enjoying university life, Walker said she was focused on driving policies to reduce student debt, improve housing affordability, reduce domestic violence and improve access to government services in regional areas.
'The biggest issue with getting into the housing market is saving for that down payment,' she said.
Loading
'I'm really looking forward to getting out and talking to local people, making sure that we have proper regional representation in our parliament.'
Walker grew up on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, studied at the University of Adelaide and took a job with the Australian Services Union. She will now switch to a full-time job as a politician, but one less than half as old as the average member of parliament, who is 50 years old.
'Growing up in the country, I didn't see myself in the parliament, so that's definitely a priority of mine,' she said.
'Another issue I saw a lot of growing up is domestic violence. The lack of access to services really saw that issue maximised.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese 'raises eyebrows' in Washington by shying away from US in John Curtin address
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's decision to downplay the US alliance in a major address has rattled the diplomatic relationship amid an AUKUS review, defence spending tensions and criticism from the Trump administration. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has 'raised eyebrows' in the United States at a time of growing disunity, sparking further concerns about his relationship with Washington. In his weekend address at the 80th anniversary of former prime minister John Curtin's death, Mr Albanese distanced Australia from its history as a close ally of the US. He said that Australia would pursue its interests as a 'sovereign nation' and not be 'shackled to the past', after Mr Curtin led the country through WWII as a close ally of the US. Mr Albanese declared the US alliance should be seen as a 'product' of Mr Curtin's leadership in foreign, but not the 'extent' of it. 'Curtin's famous statement that Australia 'looked to America' was much more than the idea of trading one strategic guarantor for another,' Mr Albanese told the John Curtin Research Centre. 'It was a recognition that Australia's fate would be decided in our region.' The comments have been interpreted by policy experts as a rhetorical step away from the US alliance, and risk being seen in Washington as a signal of diplomatic divergence. Former Trump senior advisor Christian Whiton weighed in on the Prime Minister's speech, telling Sky News that it would be met with "skepticism" by the US. 'I think you have to look at it as sort of a globalist, soft on China signal,' Mr Whiton said on Sunday. 'Maybe it's one that the United States invited because, you know, the review of AUKUS is sort of an own goal situation; it's a little unclear." Mr Whiton added that the Australian-US relationship was enduring and that the two countries' shared history was "more important than any verbiage back and forth" "There's a lot of mixed messages going on," he said. Retired major general of the Australian Army Mick Ryan also told Sky News that Mr Albanese's speech would "raise eyebrows in the US capital". "There was a huge amount of enthusiasm for talking down any threat whatsoever posed by China (in the speech)," Mr Ryan said. "The fact that the US wasn't mentioned, not just in the current concept, but also its great contribution to Australia's defence in the Pacific War will really affect many of our friends in the United States." It comes as the AUKUS agreement has come under review by the US Pentagon, a defence pact that was set up to enhance US involvement in securing the Indo-Pacific region. Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan warned on Sunday that Mr Albanese had failed to prioritise the US relationship since President Donald Trump was elected in November 2024. 'Given the importance of that country, not just on the economic relationship we have, but the national security relationship, it should be (embarrassing) to all Australians,' Mr Hogan said. 'We know the US is doing a review into AUKUS as well, and the fact our two leaders haven't had a chat and Albanese hasn't been able to secure that is absolutely embarrassing.' — Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 5, 2025 Tensions rise following AUKUS friction The fallout from Mr Albanese's speech followed weeks of growing strain in the trilateral AUKUS security pact after the US Pentagon ordered a review of the deal. A US defence official said the review would ensure the pact met President Trump's 'America First' agenda, amid criticism of Australia's comparatively low level of defence spending. That decision came before Australia and the UK adopted what critics described as 'ambiguous' positions on President Trump's recent strikes against Iran. Mr Albanese waited 24 hours before his government issued a carefully worded statement that stopped short of endorsing the US strikes, calling instead for 'de-escalation' and 'dialogue'. That response was branded 'flat-footed' by the opposition, with acting shadow foreign affairs minister Andrew Hastie saying Mr Albanese 'should have stood up and spoken to the Australian people'. 'Sending out a government spokesman to make a brief comment about one of the biggest events to happen in the last five years was not good enough,' Mr Hastie said at the time. The perceived reluctance to back US action in the Middle East likely deepened concerns in Washington over Australia's reliability as an ally. The Trump administration has been publicly frustrated by the Albanese government's resistance to increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent requested by USDefence Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Albanese government has committed to spending 2.3 per cent of GDP by 2033, far shy of the 5 per cent agreed to by NATO allies by 2035. PM dismisses concerns Despite the mounting concerns, Mr Albanese has downplayed the idea of a rift between Australia and the US. Speaking at the Sky News/The Australian's Economic Outlook forum on Friday, he insisted that he was 'not worried' about relations with the United States. He said he was confident in getting a meeting with President Trump, even after their scheduled meeting at the G7 in Canada was abruptly cancelled. President Trump then failed to follow up with a phone call, despite speaking with other world leaders, and no meeting has been booked in since. 'I'm not worried by someone making an understandable decision, which he did, to return to Washington,' Mr Albanese said of the cancelled meeting on Friday. 'Of course, we will have meetings. There will be a range of meetings between now and the end of the year with President Trump.'
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
ADF must stop closing ranks on sexual abuse of servicewomen
The Australian Defence Force's continuing inertia on the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide and Ben Roberts-Smith, VC, suggests it is locked in a purgatory of its own creation. It only gets worse. Now the organisation has been revealed as failing to protect servicewomen from predators within its own ranks. Using classified reports and other secret material, the Herald and 60 Minutes have shown how officialdom has betrayed women who have been victims of sexual violence by fellow servicemen, leaving them ignored, sidelined and marginalised. Loading Reporter Nick McKenzie and producer Garry McNab interviewed former servicewomen who suffered sexual assaults and then endured the pain that followed, a suffering that turned into anger heightened by the ADF's failure to help them heal. Their harrowing stories include: the accused rapist who returned as a Defence contractor only to be charged with another rape; the high-ranking SAS officer who assaulted a fellow female officer at a reunion; and the junior airwoman assaulted at knife-point who was forced out and hit by a military gag order that the ADF refuses to remove. The ADF has been wrestling with its dismal record on protecting women servicemen since the 2013 'Skype scandal' at Duntroon, where a male trainee officer filmed a sexual encounter with a female trainee and broadcast it live to other male trainees. It triggered the largest organisational reform effort in Defence's history. But apparently to little avail. The royal commission's September 2024 report into defence and veteran suicide described data showing almost 800 reported sexual assaults over the past five years – a number it warned concealed the true scale of the problem given an estimated under-reporting rate of 60 per cent and the military's failure to 'accurately quantify' all cases of sexual misconduct. The commission also found an unknown number of ADF personnel with sexual offence convictions for attacks on their colleagues were still serving. Ludicrously, more than nine months after the commission demanded a fresh, focused inquiry into military sexual violence, the Albanese government has yet to announce who will lead the investigation and its terms of reference. Even Lieutenant General Natasha Fox, who as ADF chief of personnel is leading reform efforts to combat sexual violence, is in the dark. Asked to respond to the woman now speaking out, Fox admitted the ADF had failed to protect servicewomen. 'I'm sorry we weren't there when you needed us,' she said. Such behaviour is not tolerated in other workplaces. The Albanese government's prevarication is unconscionable. But the ADF's inaction on so many fronts is the stuff of powerful hierarchies with their own codes and loyalties. No institution, whether cloaked in khaki, clerical or any other garb, should ever be a law unto itself.
The Advertiser
2 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Family hopes for change as inquest draws to an end
The family of a teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer are calling for "truth, accountability and justice" following a years-long coronial inquest. Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times at close range by then-constable Zachary Rolfe at a home in the Northern Territory town of Yuendumu, in November 2019. The death of the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man devastated the community, Mr Walker's cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown said. "We miss him and feel his loss deeply every single day, it will stain our country for generations to come," she said in a statement. In March 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted Mr Rolfe of murdering Mr Walker. He has since left the police force. Over the course of the coronial inquest, which has faced several delays, text messages between Mr Rolfe and colleagues, littered with derogatory language were revealed, as were racist award certificates, which triggered a probe in early 2024 by the NT corruption watchdog. It has been a gruelling, shocking and devastating process for family and the community, Ms Fernandez-Brown said, as they prepare for Coroner Elisabeth Armitage's findings, to be handed down in Yuendumu on Monday. "Racism killed Kumanjayi. Racism from NT Police, the NT government, from Zachary Rolfe," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "Yet none of them have ever been held to account for Kumanjayi's death. "We are heartbroken and exhausted after many long years, but we are hoping change is coming." During the inquest, Mr Walker's family called for an independent police ombudsman to be established, self-determination for Yuendumu and other Aboriginal communities, investment in culturally-safe alternatives to prison and punitive policing, the banning of guns in community and a reckoning with the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people in the territory. Senior Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, said if the NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole or other officers intended on going to Yuendumu for the findings, they should come without guns, and no "empty words". "If he (Dole) is just coming to say sorry he is not welcome - how many times have they said sorry and still harmed us," Mr Hargraves said. "If Dole comes with news of real change that would be different. If he said police would put down their guns like we wanted, yes, he would be welcome. "But they are now giving out more guns to more police to shoot our people." 13YARN 13 92 76 Lifeline 13 11 14 The family of a teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer are calling for "truth, accountability and justice" following a years-long coronial inquest. Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times at close range by then-constable Zachary Rolfe at a home in the Northern Territory town of Yuendumu, in November 2019. The death of the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man devastated the community, Mr Walker's cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown said. "We miss him and feel his loss deeply every single day, it will stain our country for generations to come," she said in a statement. In March 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted Mr Rolfe of murdering Mr Walker. He has since left the police force. Over the course of the coronial inquest, which has faced several delays, text messages between Mr Rolfe and colleagues, littered with derogatory language were revealed, as were racist award certificates, which triggered a probe in early 2024 by the NT corruption watchdog. It has been a gruelling, shocking and devastating process for family and the community, Ms Fernandez-Brown said, as they prepare for Coroner Elisabeth Armitage's findings, to be handed down in Yuendumu on Monday. "Racism killed Kumanjayi. Racism from NT Police, the NT government, from Zachary Rolfe," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "Yet none of them have ever been held to account for Kumanjayi's death. "We are heartbroken and exhausted after many long years, but we are hoping change is coming." During the inquest, Mr Walker's family called for an independent police ombudsman to be established, self-determination for Yuendumu and other Aboriginal communities, investment in culturally-safe alternatives to prison and punitive policing, the banning of guns in community and a reckoning with the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people in the territory. Senior Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, said if the NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole or other officers intended on going to Yuendumu for the findings, they should come without guns, and no "empty words". "If he (Dole) is just coming to say sorry he is not welcome - how many times have they said sorry and still harmed us," Mr Hargraves said. "If Dole comes with news of real change that would be different. If he said police would put down their guns like we wanted, yes, he would be welcome. "But they are now giving out more guns to more police to shoot our people." 13YARN 13 92 76 Lifeline 13 11 14 The family of a teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer are calling for "truth, accountability and justice" following a years-long coronial inquest. Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times at close range by then-constable Zachary Rolfe at a home in the Northern Territory town of Yuendumu, in November 2019. The death of the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man devastated the community, Mr Walker's cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown said. "We miss him and feel his loss deeply every single day, it will stain our country for generations to come," she said in a statement. In March 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted Mr Rolfe of murdering Mr Walker. He has since left the police force. Over the course of the coronial inquest, which has faced several delays, text messages between Mr Rolfe and colleagues, littered with derogatory language were revealed, as were racist award certificates, which triggered a probe in early 2024 by the NT corruption watchdog. It has been a gruelling, shocking and devastating process for family and the community, Ms Fernandez-Brown said, as they prepare for Coroner Elisabeth Armitage's findings, to be handed down in Yuendumu on Monday. "Racism killed Kumanjayi. Racism from NT Police, the NT government, from Zachary Rolfe," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "Yet none of them have ever been held to account for Kumanjayi's death. "We are heartbroken and exhausted after many long years, but we are hoping change is coming." During the inquest, Mr Walker's family called for an independent police ombudsman to be established, self-determination for Yuendumu and other Aboriginal communities, investment in culturally-safe alternatives to prison and punitive policing, the banning of guns in community and a reckoning with the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people in the territory. Senior Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, said if the NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole or other officers intended on going to Yuendumu for the findings, they should come without guns, and no "empty words". "If he (Dole) is just coming to say sorry he is not welcome - how many times have they said sorry and still harmed us," Mr Hargraves said. "If Dole comes with news of real change that would be different. If he said police would put down their guns like we wanted, yes, he would be welcome. "But they are now giving out more guns to more police to shoot our people." 13YARN 13 92 76 Lifeline 13 11 14 The family of a teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer are calling for "truth, accountability and justice" following a years-long coronial inquest. Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times at close range by then-constable Zachary Rolfe at a home in the Northern Territory town of Yuendumu, in November 2019. The death of the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man devastated the community, Mr Walker's cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown said. "We miss him and feel his loss deeply every single day, it will stain our country for generations to come," she said in a statement. In March 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted Mr Rolfe of murdering Mr Walker. He has since left the police force. Over the course of the coronial inquest, which has faced several delays, text messages between Mr Rolfe and colleagues, littered with derogatory language were revealed, as were racist award certificates, which triggered a probe in early 2024 by the NT corruption watchdog. It has been a gruelling, shocking and devastating process for family and the community, Ms Fernandez-Brown said, as they prepare for Coroner Elisabeth Armitage's findings, to be handed down in Yuendumu on Monday. "Racism killed Kumanjayi. Racism from NT Police, the NT government, from Zachary Rolfe," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "Yet none of them have ever been held to account for Kumanjayi's death. "We are heartbroken and exhausted after many long years, but we are hoping change is coming." During the inquest, Mr Walker's family called for an independent police ombudsman to be established, self-determination for Yuendumu and other Aboriginal communities, investment in culturally-safe alternatives to prison and punitive policing, the banning of guns in community and a reckoning with the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people in the territory. Senior Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, said if the NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole or other officers intended on going to Yuendumu for the findings, they should come without guns, and no "empty words". "If he (Dole) is just coming to say sorry he is not welcome - how many times have they said sorry and still harmed us," Mr Hargraves said. "If Dole comes with news of real change that would be different. If he said police would put down their guns like we wanted, yes, he would be welcome. "But they are now giving out more guns to more police to shoot our people." 13YARN 13 92 76 Lifeline 13 11 14
