Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian parliament is the centre of Australia’s democracy, which has been forged over more than a century without bloodshed and without civil wars, just robust campaigns—though some of us would certainly say we endured a civil war in the election campaign and the lead-up to the election on 24 November. Changes in governments are made by the will of the people, and last November we saw a change of government for only the sixth time in 60 years. Unlike the people of so many other countries around the world, we as a people should be proud of our robust and strong democracy and the manner in which we peacefully transition from one government to another—although that does not mean that the change did not bring some sadness to me personally and to many of my colleagues.

My win was bittersweet, with the loss of so many wonderful colleagues who fought the hard fight and have not returned to this place. I am proud of the fact that I was a member of the government that was supported by so many Australian people. Millions of people—in fact around 47 per cent of the Australian people—voted for the return of the Howard government, but sadly not enough. However, as we embark on the 42nd Parliament and we welcome the new members on both sides to this place, it is important that the positive legacies of the Howard government are not forgotten. There is no doubt our history will be debated and written about for years, but I think it is important that the history that is recorded and commented on truly reflects our achievements. The incoming Rudd government certainly has inherited strong foundations on which to build the future achievements of this country, and quite frankly it is time it started building and implementing its policy agenda and stopped the stunts and rhetoric. It is time it moved on. Make no mistake: we will be challenging and questioning as it proceeds to implement its policy agenda and its election promises.

Apart from my very deep disappointment that the Howard government did not get re-elected, I am very proud of being re-elected as the member for McPherson. It is truly an honour and a privilege to, once again, for my fourth term, be representing the people of McPherson. I say to the people of McPherson: I will not let you down. I will remain a strong and demanding advocate to ensure McPherson is not forgotten by the new Labor government and, to that end, I will ensure Labor promises are kept to ensure that our community remains strong and prosperous, older Australians are cared for, our young are given every opportunity to achieve their full potential and business continues to work in a strong economy that will ensure its success.

Not a member of this House was successful at the last election without the help of a strong team of volunteers and supporters—and I am no different. I did not win McPherson on my own. I was helped by many wonderful people who gave their time and energy to ensure we kept McPherson in Liberal hands, and today I want to pay tribute to some particular individuals and say thank you to the hundreds of people who worked on election day manning the booths on what was a very hot day in Queensland. In particular, I want to put on the record my sincere thanks to some very special people. Scott Paterson, my treasurer, had the unenviable task of raising the funds that were needed to mount the campaign. To Scott and his wife, Claudette, I say a very sincere thankyou. I also say thank you to the rest of the team who manned the shopping centres, manned the street stalls, worked in my office, stuffed the envelopes and answered the phones. Karen and Emma Andrews, a wonderful mother and daughter team, were with me every Saturday in shopping centres—and they even dragged along Chris, Karen’s husband, one day. Valerie and Albert Aumann were always there at those shopping centre visits. Thank you to Greer Waters and John Strickland. Sandy Brennan and Michelle Nassoor worked tirelessly on election day delivering the food and drinks to all the workers. Annette and Bruce Poppett—Annette worked in the office and the two of them also delivered food on election day. Helen Mills, a wonderful cook, brought the food into the office to keep the staff going and also delivered food on election day. Anne Philips, a wonderful supporter and volunteer in my office to this day, has been there for a long time and was wonderful on the computer with her data entry, supporting the staff and also working on election day. On election night we needed to feed hundreds of supporters, and I thank Judi and Mike Walsh and Jocelyn and Steve Penwarden for the wonderful effort in cooking the barbecue and feeding hundreds of workers on election night. We were all pretty bruised and battered from a very long day in the sun, and they did a remarkable job. I cannot name all the people who helped us. It was a very tough campaign. We had been on the campaign trail for months. But to all of those who helped—all those Liberal Party branch members and all the supporters from my community—I say a very sincere thankyou.

I would like to reflect on a few of the projects in my electorate that I would like to see committed to by the new Labor government. I was buoyed yesterday to hear the government has announced an infrastructure audit and the establishment of Infrastructure Australia. This is an important step forward in identifying those areas of infrastructure we certainly need—and on the Gold Coast we need roads. The last federal government did make a commitment of $120 million to build the Tugun Bypass, and in the lead-up to the last election day made a commitment of $455 million for the upgrade of the M1. I want to see the commitment to fund the upgrade of the M1 made clear by the new Labor government. The $455 million funding announcement during the campaign was great news for Gold Coast residents. The M1 is the major gateway from northern New South Wales, and we should be driving on the Tugun Bypass, which is nearing completion, by the middle of this year. With the rapidly growing population and the completion of the stadium at Robina, sections of the Pacific Highway will face further congestion and increasing demands well into the future. Funding for this project will meet the challenges and the demands of growth that we are seeing in our city. One of the city’s most pressing road bottlenecks is the M1, and I hope that the new Labor government will match the $455 million funding that we committed to see that that upgrade does take place. I call on the new Labor government to match that funding with Anna Bligh’s state government in Queensland.

I would also like to put on record the success of the Black Spot Program and the Roads to Recovery program, which saw a lot of our local roads upgraded in our city. They were both extremely successful programs. It would be great to see them continue. I think it is important for our local governments to have support from our federal government to meet the demands of cities like the Gold Coast, with its growing population and growing need for those roads to be upgraded.

We just heard from the last speaker, the member for Wills, about the skills shortage in this country, and there is no doubt we are facing a skills shortage. I recently had the pleasure of launching the 2008 academic year for the Gold Coast Australian Technical College. This was committed to by the last federal government. We have opened the doors and I am delighted to say that 150 new students will be going through that new Australian Technical College. The college was announced last year by the former federal government. Of course, it was great news for the young students and for employers in particular on the Gold Coast. It will go a long way to ensuring that those skills shortages that we are facing in our city will be met. The physical building will be completed by the middle of this year and, as I said, it will cater for 150 students who will complete grades 11 and 12 in English, maths, business and information technology.

The campus will provide on-site facilities for the range of crucial trades offered by the college, including commercial cookery, plastering and small group testing in automotive, metal and engineering, building and construction. The students will spend four weeks at the college undertaking academic studies, followed by four weeks in industry off site. This pattern repeats itself for the last two years of the students’ schooling. On completion, the students are then placed in businesses as full-time apprentices. Positions are available to all students on the Gold Coast from both independent and non-independent schools.

I understand the criteria and the competition for entering the college were pretty stiff. I know Mark Hands and his team went through an interview process. They wanted to ensure that the students who were enrolling in the college were committed to what they were doing and committed to their future. I would like to place on record today my best wishes to Mark Hands and to those 150 students I met a couple of weeks ago and wish them every success for the future.

We have heard from the incoming Labor government that the Investing in Our Schools Program will be scrapped. It will be replaced by an education revolution. Schools on the southern Gold Coast will be worse off under Labor’s decision to scrap the successful Investing in Our Schools Program. The Labor government will abolish the $1.2 billion program to pay for its election promise to put computers and trade centres in secondary schools. In the electorate of McPherson, around $1.6 million has been provided through the program to approximately 30 schools to fix projects it decided were a priority. Up to $150,000 in funding was made available to each of these schools to fix everything from run-down toilets and classrooms to funding upgrades of playgrounds and IT equipment. The program has been a huge success in McPherson and, with schoolchildren, P&Cs and the local community enthusiastically getting behind the projects, tangible results have been achieved that advance the education and wellbeing of our young students. Schools such as Burleigh Heads State School, Clover Hill State School and Caningeraba State School—all junior primary schools—received record amounts of funding to fix a lot of problems. School communities on the southern Gold Coast have particularly relied on this funding to make up for state government shortfalls. A strength of the Investing in Our Schools Program has been that the schools themselves identified the projects that would be of most benefit to individual schools, not some bureaucrat in Canberra making blind decisions.

The government’s decision to scrap this incredibly successful program is short-sighted, in my view, and indeed runs counter to their so-called education revolution. Primary schools in McPherson particularly will be hit hard because they will miss out on Labor’s funding for the education revolution, which is particularly for high schools and for the planned trade centres. I do ask: how will primary schools in McPherson address the shortfalls in funding for the infrastructure they so desperately need?

Most people in this place know of my involvement with the Titans Rugby League Football Club. In fact, I was one of those in the original bid teams when we went after the 16th rugby league licence for the Gold Coast city, and we were successful. This year we start with our first game on 14 March in round 1, and we will be playing the Cowboys. So I think we Queenslanders will be barracking one end to the—

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