Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I suppose as this parliamentary term draws to a close it is time for reflection. I wish you, Mr Deputy Speaker Causley, a long and happy retirement. You have been an outstanding occupant of the chair. I regret that you were not able to achieve a change of name to a more appropriate title for the second chamber of the House of Representatives, but that is obviously a work in progress.

The honourable member for Fowler mentioned that, with the redistribution, she was losing certain areas and gaining certain areas. One aspect of our rigorous and robust democracy in Australia is that, as populations grow or diminish, seats move to where the populations are. It is important to recognise that the parliament of Australia is elected to represent people and not areas or, for that matter, sheep or other animals.

The electorate of Fisher changes substantially in this redistribution, as it seems to every three years, because with the rapid growth of population in Queensland, particularly in south-east Queensland, our state seems to gain a seat at the expense of a southern state at every election. The seat held by the former Deputy Prime Minister, the honourable member for Gwydir, disappears and that seat moves to Queensland and, consequently, there is a reshuffle of all of the boundaries in Queensland. This will result in members seeking, when the poll takes place, to represent variations of the communities that they currently represent.

I am particularly sorry to see the departure from the electorate of Fisher at this redistribution of areas like Buderim and Maroochydore but welcome the return to Fisher of the rest of the City of Caloundra, areas like Beerwah, Glasshouse, Landsborough, parts of the Caboolture shire and the very rural Kilcoy shire, which incidentally is having a meeting tonight to protest against the forced amalgamation of that shire with the Esk shire to form the Somerset Regional Council.

As redistributions come and redistributions go, often the nature of electorates change. My seat previously was based on the central and southern Sunshine Coast. While I still have some of the central Sunshine Coast and all of the southern Sunshine Coast, I have been privileged to be given the opportunity to represent once again the interests of rural Australians in the new parts of the electorate—the rest of Caloundra City, some of Caboolture shire and all of the shire of Kilcoy.

I would also like to say how privileged we are to serve as members of the Australian parliament. Only about 1,000 people since Federation have had the opportunity of being members of the House of Representatives. I suppose politicians collectively do not have a very good reputation in the community. I think there is the perception that, just because one happens to disagree with others politically, somehow we disagree for the sake of disagreement. The community so often does not really appreciate that bills that pass through the parliament overwhelmingly do so with the support of both sides of the House.

The committee system of the Australian House of Representatives—and, for that matter, of the Australian Senate—really is a template for other parliaments to follow. While the government in the House of Representatives has a majority on all committees, and that is appropriate, very few of those committees operate in a partisan manner. Often when you listen to the contributions you really would not know whether those making contributions are members of the government parties or members of the opposition.

I have been privileged in this term to serve as Chairman of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, with the honourable member for Lowe, opposite, as my Deputy Chair. We have worked very well together. We have worked very well with other members of the coalition parties and also with members of the Labor Party. We tabled our fifth report today. There has been no dissent in any of the reports, the committee has worked very well, and I believe that we have made substantial contributions to good policy outcomes within the areas of the responsibility of the committee. Having said that, an election is coming along, and I would like to wish all of those retiring members—those who know they are retiring and those who do not—every success in the future. It is a great privilege to serve in the Australian parliament. (Time expired)

See this speech in context