Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I rise today to indicate my support for the resolution by the United Nations Association of Australia to declare 2006 the National Year of the Community. In that context, I think of last weekend. On Saturday I had the chance to spend the evening at the local Maronite dinner dance in Northcote in my electorate. Prior to that, in the afternoon, I enjoyed a celebration with the Buddhist community in Reservoir to mark the opening of the 2006 lunar new year. And yesterday afternoon we had the local Greek festival in Northcote. Next weekend, we will have the Darebin community festival, which has a highly successful multicultural local community getting involved to celebrate the Commonwealth Games and to celebrate our diversity and tolerance. I highlight these events because they share an important feature that is common to my local community, whether it is the Lebanese community, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Somali, the Iraqi or the community of the city of Darebin.

In its most simple terms, a community is about a group of people sharing something in common, whether it is where they live, their ethnicity, their interests or their values. In an increasingly frenetic society driven by individual goals and aspirations, it is easy to forget the importance of community and family. In fact, I would say that where it is not forgotten it is significantly undervalued.

This is underscored by a recent survey of Australia’s electorates on the basis of wellbeing, conducted by Deakin University. The survey, reported by the Australian today, found that the saddest electorate was in the richest and most expensive city in the country—Sydney—while the happiest electorate, Wide Bay in Queensland, was one of the poorest. In standards of living, health and connection to community, Wide Bay came out on top. Moreover, eight of the top nine happiest electorates were poor and isolated rural communities where there is a sense of wellbeing and pulling together by the local community.

These results illustrate how vital the sense of community is to our overall wellbeing and our commitment to the general community. In a world full of rhetoric, the phrase ‘a sense of community’ gets lost. But it is not intangible. You only have to think about sections of a community to understand its role and importance as a whole—its importance as a whole to Australia as a nation. Those sections are the young, the old, the sick, the disabled and the poor and less privileged in the Australian community.

However, it is not simply the vulnerable and weak who look to community for support. It is the most successful among us. When you ask leaders in a community how they succeeded to their positions within society, they invariably point to their dependence on others—a sense of team and community effort. Sir Gustav Nossal said:

... very few achievements are made alone and so much depends on collaborators, networks and people one has influenced.

Westpac’s David Morgan argues that leaders are, for the most part, not born but bred. That is, our environment is critical to our success, our sense of community. David Morgan said:

We are all remarkably adaptable beings and our experiences, especially in our early formative years, are crucial in developing our capacities.

For those reasons, I indicate my full support for the motion moved by the member for Cook this afternoon. It is exceptionally important. I referred to Sir Gustav Nossal’s advice and that of David Morgan from Westpac. The advice is well known in terms of where these people stand. I also want to quote advice from a well-known national campaigner on equality and human rights, the chair of Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Commission, Fiona Smith. She said:

Identify and connect with your community—no matter what forms the basis of it.

I reiterate her words for all Australians: identify with your local community, support your local community and do whatever you can to strengthen your local community.

I commend the motion to the House and encourage all Australians to work with and support their local, regional, state and national communities. It is about time we moved away from a dog-eat-dog approach to society and accepted our full responsibility to get involved in our local communities, to try to help overcome some of the difficulties which are faced by the less privileged. Without that commitment and accepting of responsibility, we will unfortunately, if we are not very careful, create a society of haves and have-nots. That—unfortunately the case in many countries beyond Australia—is the last thing we want to occur in Australia. Many people from overseas want to come to Australia, because of our past success in creating a sense of community.

In conclusion, I simply remind the House that, if we are about maintaining a sense of community and a willingness to go together as a community in Australia, then it is the responsibility of all of us to pull our weight to achieve such an outcome. If we are not careful from time to time, it can be easily lost.

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