Victor Boyhan: Urges Earlier Sittings and Welcomes HIF

Leader, I suppose firstly I want to acknowledge and note the order of business for today as proposed by you. I suppose really I want to flag in the coming weeks as we come to the end of our summer recess we're going to be busy. And I'm asking you, Leader, to consider if there's a lot of additional legislation coming down the tracks that we would extend our times either earlier or later. We are ultimately a revising chamber. We have important legislative work to do. The ministers need time. All members on all sides of the House need time. So let's work together constructively to see if we can take it an hour or two earlier. You know, I understand that rural Senators have families, but urban ones have too. And there are Senators falling out of here at ten o'clock at night, you know, with work, pressure, commitments. And I think we need to bear all that in mind. So let's look imaginatively constructively together between now and the summer to get that matter done. Next, I'd like to welcome the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund, the HIF, which was announced by government yesterday, just to say well done. I think it's exciting. It's imaginative. It's bold. It's courageous. And I just hope that the local authorities and all those providing housing are up and ready to avail of the funding that has been set aside. And I want to thank the government and the minister particularly in relation to that matter. And then I want to also acknowledge and to thank the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Housing and Heritage, indeed, for their statement of strategy for 2026 to 2028. Mandatory reading for every member who's interested in local government, because it clearly sets out the strategy of the government. Now, there are some repeat objectives in this document, and that brings me to them. So I want to commend the ministers, the three ministers in that department for pulling that together and publishing it. It's been published for some time, but it's been updated. So I want to say well done. But the reoccurring theme for me, of course, is the local government task force. And I'm asking you, Leader, to ascertain from government and the ministers within the department that there was the establishment of a local government task force. It did submit its final report to government. The task force provided certain recommendations and suggestions for reform in relation to local authority structures, finance and government and additional matters. I understand this, the minister's word to bring this to cabinet, and I understand we're now in early year. It's June now, of course. 2026, we're now talking. I know the ministers only received the report in March, but I think it's timely that we should publish that, or certainly have a briefing of senators maybe, possibly. I'd know differently. That's a matter for the minister, ultimately. And I'd also like to acknowledge the work that Senator Mark Daly-Archihilloch in the previous Senate who convened, as did many members of the Senate here on it, which was the Commission on Local Democracy. And many of that fed into this report. So look, there are a number of issues there, but they're all positive. And I hope that we can make progress on all. Thanks.