Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is a privilege and an honour to be back in this place after the last federal election. I take this opportunity to put on the public record my thanks to the good people of Franklin for putting their faith in me as their federal representative for a second term. I was humbled and overwhelmed by the confidence that the electors in Franklin showed in me on election day, with a swing towards Labor not just in the seat of Franklin but also in the state of Tasmania. My promise to the electors of Franklin is the same as it was in 2007 when I was elected: I will work hard and be a strong voice for them, both locally and here in Canberra. Over the past three years I have delivered a significant investment across Franklin that I believe has made a real difference to the lives of local people.

In 2007, in my first speech in this place, I talked about southern Tasmania feeling as though it had been left out in comparison to northern Tasmania. Certainly the investment in southern Tasmania since that time has been redressed. Investments are now occurring on a needs basis for the strategic and economic benefit of all Tasmanians. I am particularly proud of the more than $200 million which has been invested in my electorate in health, education, transport and community infrastructure. I am proud to have delivered, over a three-year period, all of the election commitments I made to local people in the 2007 election. Most construction is well underway or commitments have been fully delivered. Construction of the Kingston bypass, which is a major project in the south of my electorate, is well underway and due for completion in 2012. It is a major bypass and work has been underway for some time. Significant progress has been made. There is also the beginning of the construction of the Clarence GP superclinic. We copped a bit of flak about a year or so ago from my Liberal Senate opponent in the electorate who said it was just a big, empty hole. We said construction was about to happen and, sure enough, construction is now well underway and due to be completed early next year.

I also lobbied really hard to deliver a trade training centre for the people of the Huon Valley. Construction of that will commence very soon as part of Labor’s election commitments from 2007. There is also the Huon Valley Water Scheme. I turned the first sod on 29 June this year. There was $12 million of federal government money towards a $30 million project to deliver secure water supplies for the residents of Huonville, Franklin, Cygnet and Geeveston. For some it was the first time they had a secure water supply.

There was also the Clarence water recycling scheme. We have construction of a major pipe underway and there is construction of a dam also underway. So there have been many significant improvements in the local electorate. Of course, that is without any of the stimulus money that was put into the electorate. Two of the projects under the Community Infrastructure Program that I know have been well received by local residents are the Bellerive oval lights project and the Kingborough twin ovals project, let alone all of the Building the Education Revolution projects.

Certainly in Tasmania, and in every school I have been to in my electorate, the Building the Education Revolution has been very well received by the school community, both students and teachers alike. In fact, during the last non-sitting week I opened four BER projects in my electorate and every single one of them was very well received. It was fantastic to see the children in these new facilities and some of the wonderful things that are occurring in them with some of the new equipment, such as the interactive whiteboards and the new computers, that people are using for the first time in some of those classrooms. It has certainly led to some innovation in some of the teaching.

Of course, there has also been some social housing in my electorate which was also very well received, and the NBN rollout was a big factor in the election in Tasmania. Tasmania is, of course, the first state to receive the NBN rollout. We have even got the state Liberal Party supporting the NBN rollout in Tasmania. Their leader, Will Hodgman, is supportive of the NBN rollout. Indeed, we have had an admission from Liberal Senator Eric Abetz that the NBN was a factor in the federal election in Tasmania. The reason that it was a factor in Tasmania is that it has actually been turned on in three suburbs or cities in Tasmania—in Smithton, Midway Point and Scottsdale, which are stage 1.

It was my pleasure to be there with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Premier when it was turned on on 12 August of this year, during the election campaign. It was amazing to see firsthand how some of this technology will work. We spoke to a woman by the name of Peggy who was using the NBN to help her manage her health issues. One of things that Peggy said that really hit home to me was that it was like having a friend in her home, having this equipment that allowed her to manage her condition from her own home. She could contact the health professionals that she needed with the touch of a button. It was fabulous to see.

We also saw some of the students in the classrooms via the NBN and some of the advantages that will have for innovative education. The NBN is about more than just faster downloads. It will change the way we deliver health services in hospitals and in people’s homes. It will change the way doctors and clinicians engage with patients, and there are many initiatives that will improve primary and preventative health care. It will also, of course, deliver particularly well for areas like Tasmania and rural and regional Australia. It is really important that people start to understand the concept that this is not just about broadband and faster speeds; it is actually about better government service delivery and it is about better services for rural and remote communities. It will drive innovation in many of the areas of health, education and e-commerce. So there are many advantages to the NBN rollout.

During the election campaign we also heard from many of my constituents about some of the concerns that they had. One of the concerns that I heard very clearly at the doors in the electorate was the concern about Tony Abbott becoming Prime Minister. It was a real fear in my electorate because they associated that with cuts to health, cuts to education, cuts to the trade training centre—that was a particularly big one in Huonville—and cuts to computers in schools. They were also really concerned about the wind-back of the NBN, as I said. People were fearful, and we saw in Tasmania a swing towards the Labor Party; the largest in the country. It was very clear that there was something a little bit different going on in Tasmania.

The other thing that was really important in Tasmania was the historic pension reform that Labor did in our first term. There is a larger majority of Tasmanians that are reliant on government support payments, and certainly an increase in the pension and that pension reform ongoing into the long term will benefit many Tasmanians. I am sure that the people in my electorate who have contacted me are very pleased with that reform.

The other things that I wanted to talk about are some of the election commitments that I made during the campaign. One of the things that we talked about during the campaign was the trade training centre, which was from the 2007 trade training centres commitment. One will be under construction in the Huon Valley later this year. The Liberal Party did actually commit to it in the last week or so of the campaign, which I know was very satisfying for the local community because they were then free to understand that, regardless of who won, that trade training centre would be built. It is very much needed in that local community.

One of the other things that I campaigned on was Centrelink services for the people of Kingston. Kingston is a very fast-growing municipality, and at the moment they do not have a Centrelink office. We had a petition for Centrelink services to be delivered in Kingston. We announced that Centrelink services would be delivered via a co-location with the Medicare office—one person being available there, and two kiosks. We hope to have that up and running by 1 July next year. We are in discussions with the minister about getting that delivered as quickly as we can.

We also have an election commitment for $2 million for the planning works to commence on the intersection between the East Derwent and Tasman highways to improve safety for local residents. This commitment has been very popular with local residents. There is a real safety issue in accessing the Tasman Highway from the East Derwent Highway on the eastern shore of Hobart. Those planning works will begin next year. There will be further money coming from the next round of the nation-building investment in infrastructure in Tasmania. We understand that the project in total will cost around $15 million. We look forward to working with the state government to be able to deliver on that one.

There is over $200,000 for ‘save the suburbs’ projects across the Kingborough and Clarence municipalities: $80,000 for lighting in the Clarence Aquatic Centre car park, Warrane Green Belt Park, Stanley Park and Astor Park for safety for children and families of an evening, which as we know is pretty important; $75,000 for lighting in the Kingborough Sports Centre car park; $50,000 for CCTV in the Kingborough CBD; and $20,000 for solar lighting for Kingborough War Memorial Park. These are local commitments that were very well received by local residents, and we look forward to making announcements in the future on when that money will be available so that these projects can go ahead.

I have talked about the result in Tasmania, but we all know that the result nationally delivered a minority government, the re-elected Gillard government. We want to deliver a stable, effective and secure government over the next three years and we have been working with the independents and the Greens in relation to securing a stable government. As we have seen in the last few weeks that has worked quite well so far. I am looking forward to working with the Prime Minister to ensure that that continues to go well and that the people of my electorate receive their fair share of the nation’s funds and the nation’s commitment in terms of access to ministers and access to resources.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank a few people from the campaign. Of course, that starts with my family. As all of us in this place know, you cannot do this job without a supportive family. As a parent of three children, I know that that has its particular challenges. I want to thank my children, Lochie, Andy and Georgie, for their continued support. My daughter has moved from wanting mum to no longer be an MP to hoping that I might last long enough for her to vote for me in her first federal election. That is certainly progress. Of course I want to thank my husband and partner, Ian. We are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary next year. Ian has been a great support to me in this job and I certainly could not do it without him.

I want to thank my loyal and dedicated staff, who have been working exceptionally hard for me over that period. I get a lot of feedback from the local community about the quality of my staff and about the services they provide to the local community when I am unavailable. Their commitment to the electorate and to me has been overwhelming, and I want to thank them all sincerely for their efforts in the campaign, for their continued efforts and for their efforts over the last three years. I want to say thank you to my campaign team, especially my campaign manger and long-time friend, Labor senator Carol Brown, who has been my friend now for 26 years. She is a great campaign manager. She is very difficult to say no to, which I think is totally the point of a campaign manager. She worked very hard during that campaign, as did the many volunteers, the doorknockers, the people who put up posters, the people who delivered letters, the people who worked on stalls and the people who worked on polling day handing out how to votes. I thank them all very sincerely—because, as we know, you cannot do this job without all that support.

Finally, I also want to acknowledge and pay tribute to Duncan Kerr, who held the seat of Denison for 23 years. Duncan was a senior government minister during the Hawke and Keating years and made a very valuable contribution to the people of Denison and in fact to the parliament and to the intellectual rigour in terms of policy on this side of the House during those 23 years. I have known Duncan for a very long time. In fact, his campaign in 1987 was the first federal election campaign that I ever worked on. I will certainly miss Duncan and I think this place is a better for having had Duncan here as the federal member for Denison.

It is certainly a privilege and a challenge to stand for office. As I said at the beginning, I promise my constituents that I will continue to be a strong voice for them. To all those electors who put their great faith in me, I will not let you down.

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