Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak in the parliament on behalf of the people of Ryan, as I have done in this place over the last nine years. I look forward to the honour of continuing to do so as the Independent member for the electorate of Ryan, following the election in the months ahead. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my colleague Joanna Gash, the member for Gilmore, who has moved this motion concerning seatbelts in buses. It is an important motion. I speak to it on behalf of all those mums and dads, grandparents and, indeed, all the families and people of Ryan in three contexts.

I speak on their behalf by saying that we should do something about seatbelts in buses, firstly, in the context of a father. I am the father of a 3½ year-old. My little 3½ year-old Ryan Andrew Johnson is the most precious thing to me on this planet. Of course, like all dads and, indeed, all parents, I think we would do anything for our children. We would lay down our lives for our children. That is the power of parental love. It is certainly so in my case. So I speak first of all as a father.

I speak to this motion secondly as a citizen of this country. Of course, in coming into this place, we wear a particular hat as members of the federal parliament representing the views and perspectives of our constituents, but we are still citizens of our country. The Prime Minister of this country is a member of the Australian Labor Party but, as I am a citizen and a taxpayer of this country, he is also my Prime Minister. So I also speak to this motion as a citizen. I speak to this motion thirdly as a member of the parliament and as the people’s representative in Ryan.

They are the three headings that I would like to address the motion of my colleague in the parliament the member for Gilmore and to very strongly commend it. I would also like to acknowledge and pay tribute to the supporters and friends in her electorate who have been waging this campaign for, as I understand it, many years. Seatbelts in buses is a very important thing to fight for.

As I said, I am a father first of all. To me, having a child wearing a seatbelt on a bus makes eminent sense. It is clearly something that can add to the safety of my child and, indeed, to that of any child who is sitting on a bus. It makes sense that a child wearing a seatbelt on a school bus or on any bus for that matter is more likely to have their life preserved in the terrible situation of an accident or, at the very least, if they are injured, to be not so terribly injured as they might well be without wearing a seatbelt. We should all pay attention to this factor.

The second context in which I speak to this motion is as a citizen of this country. Seatbelts in buses is one of the good things that I would like to see implemented throughout the country. My electorate of Ryan includes the western suburbs of Brisbane. It is essentially a metropolitan seat. However, it stretches to the far west of the city of Brisbane, which, for anyone who knows the western suburbs of Brisbane and the Ryan electorate, includes many dirt roads and schools that are far away from the city. It is a good 90 minutes drive from the centre of town to the very far flung corners of the Ryan electorate where there are schools and where there are school buses picking up kids and taking them to their homes. As a citizen of this country, I think it is an admirable thing to install seatbelts in the buses in metropolitan Brisbane as well as in the rural towns of our great country.

The third context in which I speak is as a member of the parliament. I think these kinds of motions, these kinds of worthy issues, are there for all of us to come together on and to speak as one on in promoting these kinds of causes. These causes should not be political. These causes should not be partisan. These causes save lives. These are the kinds of causes that enhance the quality of our representation and the quality of our body politic.

I want to end my remarks in this short presentation by paying tribute again to the member for Gilmore. She is one of the finest members of this parliament. In so doing, however, I also want to pay tribute to one of our former colleagues, Kay Elson, the former member for Ford. In a speech in this parliament on 20 August 2001, she initiated a motion to have seatbelts in buses in Queensland. I would like to end my remarks by paying tribute to her and saying that we will continue to pursue the cause of seatbelts in buses, because it makes eminent good sense. (Time expired)

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