Rachel Payne

We're not saying, you know, stop funding the defense force, but what we're saying is don't become part of this overtly aggressive organization US war effort in our region because we don't think that's best for anyone, let alone Australia.

Sophie, Rachel Payne here.

I want to talk to you about data centres and AI and, you know, your position on climate targets around that.

So obviously in Australia we're seeing a rapid expansion of AI infrastructure and hyperscale data centres across Australia that's putting a lot of pressure on state energy grids and net zero targets.

[laughs]

There was an MP down there, her name's Rachel Payne.

Yeah

She introduced the bill, and she pointed to, uh, research that said that the majority of Victorians actually support the legalization of cannabis use.

If you don't mind, Kieran, just as speaking over the crossbench, I just wanted to acknowledge what Kieran said.

It was an incredible week in the Upper House, actually, and shout out to Rachel Payne for passing that amendment to decriminalise begging.

It's going to change so many people's lives where we treat homelessness as a health and human rights issue rather than a... addressing the issue with punitive measures and we also know it's a gendered issue where largely women were being charged with this.

But I abstained from voting on the inquiry because after weeks of asking and saying that they were leaving it too late, the government sent us the amendments to the work from home bill at 5pm the night before the vote on a week where we had so much legislation to consider on top of amendments and in crossbench offices like my own, we don't have the resources to do that properly no matter how hard we work.