Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Greg. I acknowledge the negative publicity that I received moving house from Campbelltown to Mosman. This occurred in January, and it was obviously a slow month for the media. The media believed that in order to represent an area you must sleep in that area. Well, they may well be right. This may seem a little strange to everybody here in this House, but I would like to thank the local preselection panel. I would like to thank them for putting the people of Macarthur’s needs first and for making sure that the preselected candidate for the next election lived in the area that they represented. I also believe that this is very important, but from time to time there are moments in my life when I have to represent my family first and foremost, and I make no excuses for putting my family first. I want to make it known to everybody in Macarthur that I wholeheartedly support and acknowledge Russell Matheson, the past Mayor of Campbelltown and Campbelltown councillor, as the best person to represent the people of Macarthur at this point in time. I want it known that they should feel very lucky to have somebody who is prepared to put up their hand and work tirelessly for that community, just as I have done.

Many years ago, when Brooke and Dillon were just little babies, the people of Macarthur banded together to support me through one of the toughest crises in my life, the loss of my wife, Lisa. For this reason, their lives a bond between myself and the people of Macarthur that I cannot expect anybody else to understand. That is why, no matter where I travel on this planet or no matter what I do with my life, I will never forget those people that were there for me when I needed them most. I am the sum of all of you and the influences that you have had on my life.

I made a simple promise to the people of Macarthur that I would bring Canberra to Macarthur and Macarthur to Canberra. The people of Camden, Picton and Campbelltown have had full access to all the ministers and the departmental staff through me, and there have never been so many visits by ministers and prime ministers to Macarthur prior to my election. I have delivered on that promise. I have also delivered close to half a billion dollars worth of infrastructure and services to the people of Macarthur and the surrounding regions.

During my political career, I particularly enjoyed my role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, Science and Training, with special responsibilities for high schools, primary schools and transition-to-work programs. I loved working with the teachers and the kids and getting into the schools to motivate the kids. I love this job very, very much and I will never forget this part of my life. Also, I loved delivering the $1.2 billion Investing in Our Schools Program. This program worked directly with schools to deliver what they needed most. Whether it was outdoor learning centres, computers, libraries or classrooms, the program delivered what the schools needed and wanted from the government.

I have spoken on this subject many times in the past but I once again want to draw to the attention of this House, in this my valedictory speech, the need to dispose of Badgerys Creek as an airport site and instead create a business park. My vision for Western Sydney is for the 1,700 hectares of land to become an economic centre, which would allow the peak-hour flow of traffic to be reversed. I believe that 1,000 hectares should be used for job creation and for commercial and industrial land. Further, 350 hectares should be used for quality housing to alleviate the housing crisis in Sydney and another 350 hectares could be used to create the lungs and recreational areas for Penrith, Campbelltown and the whole of south-west Sydney—similar to what Central Park is to New York. The advantage of this vision is that it would finally put an end to the 30-year controversy that has embroiled Badgerys Creek. It will not cost money. In fact, if it were sold with a covenant for job creation, it would fetch around $500 million. This would improve the government’s bottom line and help to pay off the massive debt that it has accumulated.

The people of Western Sydney are spending four hours of their lives each and every single day just travelling to and from work. This is causing many problems with the family unit, including the need for extended childcare times and a reduction in the quality of family life. This can be fixed without any expense to the government. Badgerys Creek is an asset that, at the moment, only feeds and breeds rabbits. This asset has sat there for nearly 30 years and has prevented people in the surrounding areas from doing anything with their homes. It is bureaucracy at its worst. The federal government has said for years, after numerous inquiries, that it is not building a second airport at the Badgerys Creek site, yet the New South Wales state government has not rezoned the surrounding area. The only way to fix the massive congestion in our cities is to create jobs and recreational facilities for people where they live.

It is not just the big issues in Macarthur that are important to me; it is also the individuals who count. There are many people in the area who from time to time have needed my help in assisting them with immigration matters or getting their children into schools in the local area. There was one case in particular of a lady who came to my office. She had just two teeth in her mouth. She had missed a dental appointment earlier that year and consequently was put to the back of the queue. She had waited two years and still had another 12 months to go before she could get something done about her dental situation. She told me that she had not eaten anything solid for over two years. That afternoon I spoke to Sydney South West Area Health Service and arranged for this lady to be fitted with a set of dentures. One month later, this lady came into my office. She had a smile that started at one ear and finished at the other ear. She had tears rolling out of her eyes as she thanked me. I will never, ever forget the look on that lovely old lady’s face. That is what this job is all about.

I found housing for a lady who was living in a car in bushland in Kentlyn, in Campbelltown. She had been attacked several times. As well as her housing dilemma, she suffered from schizophrenia. After several phone calls, we managed to get her medical help and some accommodation. People who are suffering from mental illness need to be supported by the federal government. This is part of our everyday work, and because we want to make a difference to these people’s lives, we get frustrated from time to time because we cannot help. That is when I am reminded of the words of my mother. My mother said to me—I should say, ‘My mom always said to me’ in my best Forrest Gump accent—‘Rome was not built in a day but it was certainly started in one.’ I think it is important that, when we feel disillusioned with this place, we remember those words and get started. We have to take the initial step needed to make a difference to people’s lives.

I want to acknowledge my family and the sacrifices that they have made to support me in this career—in particular, my daughter, Brooke, and my son, Dillon, who are sitting here in the chamber. I want it to be known to everybody that I am incredibly proud of you two. Last year, we spent our holidays in an orphanage in Chang Mai, in Thailand, helping children suffering from AIDS. My daughter, Brooke, read books to the children and helped to feed and clothe the babies, while my son, Dillon, and I repaired playground equipment, worked on buildings and built bikes. The love that they showed these beautiful little children and the absolute desperation they felt about the situation they were in was something that any parent would be proud of.

The year before, I travelled to India, Nepal, Egypt and Peru. I saw firsthand the work that the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies does. As I stood in the office of the Red Cross in Cairo with the Secretary-General, Professor Mamdouh Gabr, he took an urgent call. In that instance I saw his jaw drop and his eyes fill with anger as he was told that a school had been bombed in the Gaza Strip. It was a school that was being used by the Red Cross to provide aid to both sides of the front line. He recomposed himself and went about coming up with alternatives to get aid to those areas in the Gaza conflict. Later that night I asked him: ‘How can you possibly help these people who cause so much pain and destruction to others? In some cases, they cause this pain and destruction to people who are close to you.’ He told me: ‘We are the Red Cross-Red Crescent. We cannot do our job any other way.’ The people of the Red Cross go into war zones to brief soldiers on the Geneva convention. They provide a safe haven for people who are destitute. They provide food and shelter in times of cyclones, bushfires, floods, mudslides and tsunamis.

Two-thirds of the world’s population do not have clean, sanitary conditions or fresh drinking water. I have seen firsthand the different levels of poverty in this world. I have visited communities in Cairo where people live in rubbish tips and have to scavenge beside the rats to find something they can sell in order to buy water just to survive. In these same communities I have seen young children take needles from medical syringes. When they have accumulated two kilograms worth of these needles they are paid one Egyptian pound. I met with a lady whose job was to collect plastic. She burnt this plastic waste and used a stick to lift up the molten plastic and put it into a metal tub. When 10 kilograms of solidified plastic had been accumulated she would earn the equivalent of two Egyptian pounds. Her face was covered in soot and her nostrils and ears oozed black ash. One man told me that he can earn two Egyptian pounds for collecting rubbish from the city. If he earns less than that, he has to choose between feeding his donkey and feeding his children. Unfortunately, he is forced to choose the donkey, because it can earn him money the following day, and he and his children go without food that night. I have seen communities in the mountains of Nepal and Peru that are desperately poor, but they have water, and with water they can grow a little grain, feed chickens, boil up food and wash. They can stave off disease. They are poor, but they can survive because they have water.

I have been influenced by these things and so much more in my life. That is why I feel an absolute need to build wells and to raise the money needed to provide clean, sanitary conditions for the women and children of these communities. I encourage all Australians and world citizens to do the same and support me in my next endeavour. On 27 November I will embark on the greatest journey that I could ever possibly imagine. I have set a goal to raise $100 million for this worthwhile endeavour. I will run from the South Pole to the edge of the ice in Argentina, then through South America, the United States of America and Canada, and then on to the North Pole before flying to the United Nations to present my findings—the places I have been, the people I have met and the things I have done along the way. I will run more than 21,000 kilometres through the extremes of every weather condition on this earth.

I have met with every high commissioner and ambassador of the countries I will be running through, and I am proud to say that I have their support and that they strongly support work to improve the lives of the severely poor of this world. I will present to the United Nations at the end of my journey all that I have seen and all that I have done. I will be asking the politicians to take a good, long look at themselves and to ask the question: if one man can do this, what can we all do if we work together as a nation? What can we do to help each and every nation meet the Millennium Development Goals to alleviate the poverty crisis in our own backyards as well as around the world? I ask each and every one of you here in this House: why is it that we can put a man on the moon and yet still two-thirds of the world’s population do not have clean drinking water or clean, sanitary conditions? Throughout my run, using the latest communications technology, I will beam into the boardrooms, the classrooms and the living rooms of people worldwide everything that I see and everything that I do. Hopefully, that will encourage people to follow my journey and to support me.

In finishing, if the people of this House remember nothing of the words that I have ever uttered in this place but they remember this last phrase, then my time here will have been worth while. So I say to each and every one of you that locked within each of us is the ability to achieve great things. I believe that the greatest force on this earth is our will. If we want to do something and we want to do it with all our heart, we can and we will find a way, but if we do not truly want to do it we will simply find an excuse. To all of you here in this House: please find a way to help all of humanity, and please, please, please, no excuses.

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