Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

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Published on Wednesday, 09 May 2012 00:00

Ms Parke (7:00pm) — I am very pleased to speak on this critical issue, and I thank the Prime Minister for her timely motion in support of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, which has in turn been seconded by the opposition leader. Every single point of the motion must be pursued with urgency if this most ominous of threats to worldwide peace and stability is finally to be eradicated. The spectre of nuclear war has haunted human civilisation for the past 66 years. By the time the Cold War ended, the US and the Soviet Union between them possessed more than 70,000 nuclear warheads.

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Magellan Powertronics

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Published on Monday, 26 March 2012 04:11

Masoud Abshar, founder and CEO of Magellan Powertronics in Bibra Lake, tells Melissa about his company's Australian designed and made power electronics products.

Ms Parke (9:44am) — I rise today with the exciting story of an innovative power electronics engineering enterprise, Magellan Powertronics, operating in the burgeoning commercial-industrial district of Bibra Lake, one of the fastest growing in the nation, right in the heart of the Fremantle electorate.

Since 1992 Magellan Powertronics has been supplying power electronic systems. An ac-dc converter is the most typical such device and related equipment to support many sectors, among them defence, power generation, mining, renewable energy, oil and gas, petrochemical, health, transport and marine. It has won contracts for some of Australia's largest development projects such as FMG's Cloudbreak and BHP's Hay Point expansion in Queensland.

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Margaret Whitlam

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Published on Monday, 26 March 2012 04:06

Ms Parke (6:41pm) — I wish to acknowledge the remarkable life of Margaret Whitlam who died surrounded by her family on Saturday at Sydney's St Vincent's Private Hospital. Margaret Whitlam has been praised for blazing a new trail for first ladies, however, my impression was that she never saw herself in that way. As Margaret told biographer Susan Mitchell during a 1987 interview, 'I just saw the role of the Prime Minister's wife as being human towards other humans and not treating them badly.'

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World War II: Internment

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Published on Monday, 26 March 2012 04:01

Debate resumed on the motion by Ms Parke:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the motion tabled in the South Australian Parliament on 28 July 2011 by Mr Tony Piccolo MP, Member for Light, which acknowledges the experience of 'enemy aliens' interned during World War II and seeks to record an acknowledgement in similar terms by the Commonwealth Parliament on behalf of the nation; and

(b) that during World War II thousands of people were interned in camps around Australia as 'enemy aliens' and prisoners of war, and among the 'enemy aliens' interned were permanent Australian residents born in Australia or who had become British subjects in accordance with the Federal immigration and citizenship laws of the day;

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