Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thought I might just spend a moment advising the parliament of some events in my electorate last week. It was a great week for Townsville and a great week for the government. First of all, I was privileged to take the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to the Heatley High School in Townsville. I might say that, over the years, Heatley has not enjoyed the most wonderful of reputations. It is in a very difficult socioeconomic area of the city, but I came away truly inspired by the young students who were there giving evidence to the committee and by the leadership of the principal, Bill Sperring, and his staff. If the students at Heatley are the future of Australia, then our country is in very good hands indeed.

I had a visit the next day from Gary Hardgrave, the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education. He was there to see progress on what he described and what I believe is the most outstanding Australian technical college in Australia. Under the leadership of John Bearne and his group, the technical college, which was originally contracted to take on 100 students in January of next year on a greenfields site, will now take on 160 and it is looking to do more as well.

I then had a visit by the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley—a bit of an embarrassing visit for the Leader of the Opposition. He went to Labor heartland—to the meatworks in Townsville—and he was booed by the workers. That is just quite extraordinary. At the same time, he found that the state government was supporting Work Choices. I thank the Beattie government for their support, as they have now realised that Work Choices is the way ahead for Australia.

Finally, I had a visit from Joe Hockey, the Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting the Minister for Workplace Relations. I took Joe and the CEO of Centrelink Australia, Jeff Whalan, to Centrelink Aitkenvale. Before we went in the door, I said to both of them: ‘Understand this: this is the best Centrelink office in Australia.’ After the visit, where I conducted them around Centrelink, the minister turned to me and he said: ‘I now know what you mean. This is the best Centrelink in Australia.’ Of course, he was also in the call centre run by Rick Finerty. The call centre in Townsville has just recently been nominated as Australia’s best Centrelink call centre. So I have to say to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, it is all happening in the north. We very proud of what we do up there. We could show you southerners a thing or two.

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