Portfolio — 26 March 2026

The dominant story in Senator McCarthy's two-day window is Cyclone Narelle's impact on remote Northern Territory communities and the government's active disaster response. During question time on 26 March, the Minister for Indigenous Australians reported that more than 1,000 people have been evacuated from communities including Numbulwar, Nauiyu, Daly River, Jilkminggan and Palumpa — many for the second time in recent weeks [TA-260326-senate-fe3f4b93a2a8:s186].

Jilkminggan, Beswick and Katherine itself have been inundated, with communities in Far North Queensland and Western Australia also in the cyclone's path [TA-260326-senate-fe3f4b93a2a8:s186]. The ADF has deployed to support evacuations alongside emergency services and local workers, and a 24-hour AUSMAT field hospital with a fully operational emergency department and maternity services is now operating in Katherine [TA-260326-senate-fe3f4b93a2a8:s186].

The Minister used question time to connect the immediate disaster response to longer-term structural investment. She announced that 75 additional remote stores across Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia can now apply for resilience package funding to upgrade storage, refrigeration and solar capacity [TA-260326-senate-fe3f4b93a2a8:s187].

The Lajamanu store — which used a prior resilience grant to build warehouse and freezer capacity sufficient for ten weeks of stock — was cited as the model [TA-260326-senate-fe3f4b93a2a8:s187]. On remote employment, the Minister tied on-ground disaster workers — RJED workers, Nyirrunggulung-RISE participants, Yirralka rangers and night patrol workers — directly to her portfolio's $299 million commitment to double remote jobs to 6,000 by 2030 [TA-260326-senate-fe3f4b93a2a8:s188].

The framing was explicit: remote employment programs are not only economic instruments but disaster-resilience infrastructure.

Across the two sitting days, Senator McCarthy also moved the second readings of two substantive bills in a representative capacity. The Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026 covers five schedules modernising law enforcement: AFP powers at Western Sydney International Airport; digitally adapted search warrant and assistance order processes; extended AFP and ACIC surveillance powers for technology-enabled serious crime to 4 September 2029; streamlined serious drug offence prosecutions through evidentiary certificates and mixture-quantity thresholds; DPP conflict-of-interest clarifications; Extradition Act streamlining; and updated Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act terminology reflecting Victorian integrity oversight changes [TA-260325-senate-9aaa61ce6ff6:s110].

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Genetic Testing Protections in Life Insurance) Bill 2026 bans life insurers from using genetic test results in setting insurance offers or terms, with ASIC assigned enforcement under strict liability and civil penalty provisions [TA-260325-senate-9aaa61ce6ff6:s112]. The Minister grounded the policy rationale in a Monash University study finding more than half of participants discontinued genetic testing due to insurance access fears [TA-260325-senate-9aaa61ce6ff6:s112].

The same bill carries three further schedules: elevating to primary law ASIC relief for professional and wholesale investors accessing global financial products; modernising the legislative framework for Multilateral Development Banks and the IMF to formalise agreements announced at 2024–25 MYEFO with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank; and repealing individual financial adviser registration requirements due to commence 1 July 2026, on the basis that Stage 1 registration has proven sufficient for disciplinary objectives [TA-260325-senate-9aaa61ce6ff6:s112].

Senator McCarthy also commended the Appropriation Bills Nos. 3 and 4 2025–26 to the Senate and moved third readings of bills across both sitting days, completing a legislatively dense window.