Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I present to the House 6,581 signatures collected from around Australia, from every state, reflecting the efforts of many people, who, as the rules of the House provide, must provide their signatures and their petition on paper. They have managed to gain these signatures by way of collection and posting to my office in less than 10 days. I sent a note to the minister informing her of my intention of lodging this petition today. I am not critical of her absence, but I hope she will take note of the severe concern and devastation that has occurred amongst people, particularly outside of the metropolitan area, from the changes that the government has proposed in this place that will severely affect the opportunity of many young people to gain a university education and their ability to provide the skills they would acquire as schoolteachers, science teachers and many of the other people that the education minister so desperately desires to fill the new classrooms that she is building. I seek leave to present the document.

Leave granted.

My petitioners have underlined that the changes will take effect retrospectively.

In putting that argument on behalf of these 6,581 signatories might I add that these were brought over by a member of my staff and I am advised that they are still flowing into my office. Surely that is a message to the government. More importantly, the whole issue is one to which people have reacted so quickly and so purposefully.

In the moments left to me let me read the areas from which these signatures originate. As I said, they came from every state. In Western Australia: Collie; Dardanup; Perenjori; Buntine; Wubin; Hopetoun—a town that has just had 1,800 miners sacked; Geraldton; Capel; Applecross—which is a city locality; Albany; Morawa; and Bunbury. They came from Mount Gambier, Port Pirie, Port Lincoln, Port Augusta, Tumby Bay, Patterson Lake and Naracoorte in South Australia. In New South Wales they came from Port Macquarie, Moree, Forbes, Peak Hill, Parkes, Coonabarabran, Walcha, Bourke—a town that also lost 100 workers through a water buyback—Dubbo, Grafton and Albury; and electors from the electorate of Gilmore—(Time expired)

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