David Jull (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I saw the title of today’s matter of public importance I thought it could be a very interesting debate indeed and that we may have an opportunity to speak at some length about what goes on in this parliament. However, it has degenerated into something of a vicious personal attack on some of the personnel here.

Looking back over my 30 years in this place I think I have probably seen it all before. I have served under a number of Prime Ministers and I have served under a number of governments, and I think one of the most frustrating and dreadful things I had to contend with was almost 13 years sitting on the opposition benches. There is nothing worse than being in opposition in this place. I can understand that the present opposition are totally frustrated and why they lean towards MPIs such as this to try to get rid of some of that frustration.

I suppose I could stand here and quote chapter and verse some of the great moments of my period in this House and some of the great frustrations and dreadful things that went on from various governments of all political persuasions. I was fascinated to hear the comments made on the AWAs and how the whole world of industrial relations is about to fall down. I sat in here for month after month after month during 1989 and 1990, while the worst industrial relations dispute that Australia has ever faced, the pilot’s dispute, was under way. We had the then Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, standing at the table and threatening to destroy people, who had the capacity to destroy lives, and who did destroy lives. He sat at the table there looking at the faxes coming through, all headed ‘Ansett Transport Industries’, completely directed from Swanson Street, Melbourne. What a dreadful way that was to conduct industrial relations in this country.

When you look at the damage that was done then to people whose lives were ruined, to the companies that went to the wall, to the people who went broke, you think to yourself, ‘Isn’t it marvellous that, for the last 10 years, we have had the lowest rate of industrial disputation in our history?’ You think, ‘If we’re destroying the place, isn’t it marvellous that in my electorate’—which admittedly is based on the Gold Coast—‘the unemployment rate is just under four per cent?’ It is sad that we do not have enough trained personnel to take up those jobs that are demanded in my electorate but this government, a government of great action, said to itself that it is not going to allow the Queensland government to take this over. We have said that we are going to build our own technical college and that we are going to train people for industries such as boat-building and food preparation.

Isn’t it marvellous when you look at the trade results and the way in which our export markets have blown out to such tremendous proportions? Isn’t it marvellous about this chamber? That is an interesting thing, Mr Deputy Speaker. The additional chamber for this place has allowed the whole process of democracy to be expanded tremendously. If we are talking about how dreadful this parliament is, it is interesting to note that members of parliament have the capacity to speak on just about anything they like because of the extra time we are given in that additional chamber. But none of that has been mentioned. The fact that we have extended the hours comprehensively to allow private members to bring up all sorts of issues about all sorts of problems their electorates might have and to have additional debate on bills and some of the reports of this place has of course not been mentioned during today’s MPI.

Isn’t it marvellous, as I say, when you look at how exports from this country have gone through the roof? In the other chamber the other day I mentioned a couple of industries in my electorate. The fact that Australia is exporting pate to France really is quite amazing, but that is happening. All of this has happened in the last 10 years. I would think that it is a bit of a long bow to draw that this government is so bad and that the parliamentary processes have been abused to such an extent when we have these record earnings from exports, when we have record employment and the lowest unemployment rate since the early 1970s, when we have this huge demand for young people to go into industry and when we have more people going through tertiary education than ever before. If we are so bad, why the devil do people vote for us? It is interesting that we are sitting here in government with the biggest majority we have ever had—I think this majority is slightly larger than in 1975, or about the same as in 1975—and that the two record majorities to have been held in this parliament since World War II have both been held by a Liberal-National Party coalition.

I think of the expansion of the committee system that has happened under this government, yet the opposition talks about not enough scrutiny of what goes on. Look at the work that is now done by our parliamentary committees and at the fact that we have been able to get into areas that were once virtually taboo. It is my great privilege to be the Chairman of the Joint Statutory Committee on Intelligence and Security, one of the most vital committees that this parliament has ever established, especially in this time of terrorism alerts since September 11 2001. The fact that we have oversight of what is a very important part of our security infrastructure speaks volumes for this government and for the fact that we have now had our parliamentary oversight expanded to cover all our security organisations and various divisions.

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