Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity in my introductory remarks in the debate on the address-in-reply by thanking the electors in the seat of Throsby for providing me with the privilege of representing them again, in the 42nd Parliament. It is indeed an extraordinary privilege and honour to be an elected federal MP, and my colleagues and I all take our responsibilities very seriously. I want to also thank the constituents for the faith they placed in federal Labor, in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and, I hope, in me as their local member, which was reflected in the almost 10 per cent swing to me as the Labor candidate on the two-party preferred results. They may not be aware that the seat of Throsby now holds the distinction of being the seat in New South Wales with the highest percentage of first preference Labor votes, at 65 per cent. I am indeed delighted with that result.

I give my commitment to the electorate to continue to work very hard on their behalf, delivering improvements locally across a range of innovative national programs that the Rudd Labor government will institute, be they in the important areas of health, education or the environment. Of course, I see it as my responsibility to ensure that the specific promises made in the lead-up to the election are delivered to my constituency, including, very importantly, the commitment to a GP superclinic in the Shellharbour area to address problems with lack of GP services and the commitment made to a combined Centrelink-Medicare office to service my community at Warrawong. And the funding for the feasibility study into the Maldon-Dombarton rail link is an important infrastructure project that I hope will be advanced with the election of the Rudd Labor government.

I think there is wisdom in the saying that you are only as good as the people behind you—and, in my case, with me. So I want to take the opportunity again to place on the record my thanks to my hardworking electorate staff, who represent me so efficiently and so well and who always provide a caring hand to the people who come to my office for assistance. I want to thank my campaign director and the team of over 200 branch and volunteer members who worked on the 40 booths that we staffed on election day. I want to place on record my thanks to a range of unions locally who worked very effectively in the Your Rights at Work campaign. Of course, the issue of Work Choices, as we all recognise, was a very important component of the victory by Labor at the federal level. And, last but not least, I want to thank my partner, Denis Lennen. I think all members appreciate the important role that is provided by family members, friends and partners in ensuring that they can undertake their responsibilities, as deemed important by their constituency.

I want to say a few words tonight about some of the challenges that I see confronting the federal Labor government and the importance of addressing those challenges if we are to deliver on the big agenda that we put forward in the lead-up to the federal election. Our agenda for reform, very importantly in areas of social reform, is predicated on continuing national economic prosperity. In that regard I have to say that I think the former government, while they pointed to a range of positive economic indicators, missed the opportunities that the terms of trade have presented to our nation. There is no doubt that the terms of trade boom has provided us all with a once in a generation opportunity to modernise our economy so that we can more successfully meet the challenges of the future. Strong global demand for Australia’s commodity exports has seen our terms of trade rise to a 50-year high. The Reserve Bank recently stated that the rise in the terms of trade has boosted real national income in the order of eight per cent. That is the equivalent of around $80 billion in the last year alone. But as we know, ironically, the ongoing terms of trade boom has revealed some of the weaknesses in our economy and, specifically, the capacity constraints that the Reserve Bank had warned us about for a long time.

I think the Howard government squandered the opportunities that these boom times have given the nation. I think they failed to appreciate that these boom times are the best times to invest in strengthening the economy to set us up for the future. It is my belief, which I know is shared by people on our side of the chamber, that we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the Howard era. So in an economy which we know is now operating at close to full capacity, our efforts will need to be directed to expanding the supply side of the economy. A lack of investment in the nation’s infrastructure and the skills of our people has contributed to the current predicament of inflationary pressures. As we have indicated, the inflation genie is well and truly out of the bottle. Mr Deputy Speaker, I am finding it hard to make my comments with the chatter that is going on in the room.

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