Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The chance to make a valedictory speech is a rare opportunity for a member of parliament and one I know that I should be embracing and enjoying. As the time has approached, I was finding it harder and harder to get my thoughts and feelings onto the page. I finally realised it was because I was not being honest with myself about what is going on here today. If I was not being honest with myself, then it meant I was not being honest with the people I have represented here for the past 15 years and the colleagues I have served with and who have done me the great honour today of coming in to listen to this my last contribution to this chamber. I really do appreciate it and I think I owe you a genuine account about how I feel about ending my time here as the member for Capricornia and a proud member of the Labor caucus.

The truth is it is very hard to make a valedictory speech when I am still torn about my decision to stand down. I know I have made a decision that is right for me and my family and the Labor Party in Capricornia—and it is that but which hangs over this speech. But I am still young. At 43, it does not feel quite right to be bringing down the curtain on any kind of career, let alone one that holds such a special place in the life of our country. But there is more that I would love to do in a political career.

I never felt like I could admit it but becoming a parent in my second term, for all its joys, did floor me. I had a newborn baby and a marginal electorate bigger than the state of Victoria. So many years of my career were just about survival and holding it all together. With those days behind me, part of me would love to be thinking about the next phase of my career, not the end of it.

But there is still a fight to be had. Whenever there is a battle of ideas, Labor will always be on the side of fairness and on the side of the future. An election about better education funding, boosting superannuation, managing the transition of our economy in the interests of working people and investing in infrastructure is one that Labor has to win and one that I would relish if I thought I was still the best person to do that job for Labor in Capricornia. I feel better knowing that our candidate, Peter Freeleagus, is a true-blue Labor bloke, with a ton of experience in local government and a champion of Central Queensland.

But I cannot stop asking myself why I have not been able to figure out how to be the member of parliament I want to be and to be the mother I want to be. I happily handed over my life to my branch members and then to my constituents for so many years and it felt like I was letting them down every time I chose to spend time with my family. How though to explain that to my children, who wanted me to be there for them when I came home from Canberra? Well a choice had to be made, and it was. It is bittersweet, but milestones in life usually are and if I have learnt anything in my 15-year parliamentary career, it is the importance of keeping things in perspective and staying focused on what is really behind my purpose here—not me but my electorate.

It is advice I gave myself in my first speech on 23 November 1998. I was elected to parliament in October that year. It was an interesting time in Queensland. In the wake of the 1998 state election, the message to major parties in our state was clear and unmistakable: we could not take our traditional support base or electorates for granted. Those early days as a candidate in what felt like a new and challenging political environment—I had not seen anything yet—have always stayed with me. I have always felt very strongly the need to demonstrate in everything I do that I am firmly focused on serving my electorate rather than it serving my ambitions.

Luckily for me, the people of Central Queensland and the individual communities that have made up Capricornia in its various dimensions have always responded to that approach. They responded most obviously by voting Labor in big enough numbers to return me at five elections. They have also responded by accepting me as someone who is genuinely part of their community and their endeavours and aspirations. It is something I will always be grateful for.

On the face of it that is not such a big deal. It is part and parcel of an MP's job. I know all of you would say the same thing about your own electorates. What is so remarkable in retrospect and why I make particular mention of it today is the size and diversity of the electorate of Capricornia. Back in 1998 there were outback Queensland mayors, Bowen Basin coalminers, central highlands graziers, local school principals, Rockhampton meatworkers, Capricorn Coast pineapple growers and countless community organisations working across Central Queensland faced with this young and, let us face it, very inexperienced new MP representing them in the federal parliament. To their great credit, never once did any of those groups prejudge me or my abilities. Instead, they took me at face value when I said I wanted to listen, learn and try to help.

They took the time to make me part of their communities and teach me about their industries and interests. I was invited to council meetings and aged-care homes, was taken through underground coalmines, sugar mills, railway workshops and meatworks, and was driven around cattle properties and cane farms. In some ways it was a great advantage to be as young as I was. Nobody expected me to know anything about these industries or remote parts of the electorate so I was never tempted to bung it on and pretend to have all the answers. If I had, there is no way I would be standing here today.

Of course, I was also invited to take part in community events of all shapes and sizes from one end of Capricornia to the other—and those ends kept changing with each redistribution. Through those many and varied encounters I got to know the heart and soul of Central Queensland. It was really only then, despite my official starting date of 3 October 1998, that I truly felt that I was the member for Capricornia. It was a huge privilege to be given that chance to prove myself and to have the help and support of so many people to gain that understanding of the region and its challenges and opportunities.

The other thing I made very clear in my first speech is that, while I had to get my head wrapped around the business of Canberra, my feet were to stay firmly planted in regional Australia. I have always identified first and foremost as a regional MP. I have always been driven by the potential I see in our regions and the gaps in infrastructure and services that too often have held us back or created inequality in the opportunities available to those of us who live outside the capital cities.

Entering the parliament, I wanted to see rural and regional Australians getting all the advantages of living in this wonderful country, and that needed the support of the federal government. Well, I was a long time waiting for a federal government that was interested in making those things happen in my electorate. I spent nine years in opposition and I can only remember a couple of things of any significance that the Howard government delivered to my electorate in that whole time.

It has been a very different story since Labor came to power in 2007. In regional Australia, a big part of lifting living standards is about closing the gap between services and opportunities in cities and those available in our regions. As a new member making my first speech, I pledged to do that, and I can stand here today proud of what we, this Labor government, have done in Capricornia. The Rockhampton Base Hospital now has the MRI machine we promised at the 2007 election. We have contributed $76 million to the redevelopment of that base hospital. That has allowed for the construction of a whole new building which, among other things, will house the MRI and, my proudest announcement, the regional cancer centre.

The centre will be fully operational next year. I look forward to the day when cancer sufferers in Central Queensland will not be faced in their darkest hour with the prospect of travelling away from their family and the comforts of home to undergo lengthy periods of treatment in far off Brisbane. We lost our dad to cancer and my mother has just ended her own treatment for breast cancer, so this project above all others means a lot to me personally. I think it will make a real difference to the experience of those living with cancer in Central Queensland and to the success of their treatment too.

This government is also making a real difference to the medical workforce in Central Queensland—doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. In partnership with the University of Queensland, we have funded a fantastic new facility in Rockhampton for the Rural Clinical School that brings UQ medical students to Central Queensland to complete the final two years of their medical degree. Of course, after two years, they cannot resist the charms of our great region and a high proportion of those doctors stay on after graduation to start their careers in our local hospitals—a huge boost to our medical workforce.

Our government has also invested in the allied health clinic at Central Queensland University. Students in podiatry, oral health, nutrition, physiotherapy and other disciplines are doing their clinical placements alongside Queensland Health staff so that, by the time they graduate, they have the clinical experience they need to be fully fledged allied health professionals. Local people are getting better access to health services at the clinic at the same time as we are training the people who will fill the shortages in allied health professionals that have been a chronic problem across regional Queensland.

This is just one of many, many improvements to the facilities at Central Queensland University in both Rockhampton and Mackay—a new library and accommodation in Mackay, and a total upgrade of the engineering building and the library in Rockhampton. There is more to come at Central Queensland University, with our government providing $73 million towards further developments at the university in support of its merger with the Central Queensland Institute of TAFE to become Queensland's first dual-sector university—an important step in providing opportunities for local people to meet the demand for skilled workers in our growing region.

Our Medicare Local is doing great work delivering primary health care services, often filling gaps left by the withdrawal of funding by the conservative state government. It has just been confirmed as the successful bidder to run the headspace youth mental health centre coming to Rockhampton.

This Labor government has been a very generous sponsor for the international beef expo held in Rockhampton every three years—an iconic event for our city, the beef capital of Australia, and a showcase for the nation's beef industry, which leads the world in quality and innovation. There has been further support for the beef industry through the funding our government has made available to the meatworks in my electorate to modernise their facilities. This will see reduced carbon emissions and dramatically lower energy costs for these companies.

Mackay Sugar has seized a similar opportunity, presented by our agenda of reducing carbon and boosting renewable energy, by investing in new equipment that will burn the waste product from sugar processing and generate the equivalent of one-third of Mackay's electricity needs. It is presently Australia's biggest co-generation project and is increasing the returns to cane growers, recognising that they are now producing energy as well as an important agricultural export.

How can I go any further on that list without talking about road funding—and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport has come into the chamber just in time. If you are a regional MP, it does not matter what else you might do for your electorate: if people think the roads are crook then you are not doing a good job. I can remember my feeling of triumph when, after a ferocious campaign by mayors and local media—happily egged on by me—the Howard government announced that they would put $6 million towards an upgrade of the Peak Downs Highway between Mackay and the Bowen Basin coal mines. This is a 200-kilometre road, mind you, that links our major export industry to support services and much of its workforce in Mackay. So good of the Liberal National government to find $6 million for it.

Last election in 2010, I stood with the Treasurer at the start of that same highway for the announcement of $120 million to improve its safety and efficiency. That is the difference between our commitment to infrastructure and those opposite. There has been a huge investment into the Bruce Highway around Central Queensland. There has been almost constant work resurfacing and widening the highway from Rockhampton to Sarina and major improvements on the Sarina to Mackay stretch of that road.

Of course, there is the big one—the lifting of the highway at the southern entrance to Rockhampton. Those who tuned in to the coverage of the 2011 Rockhampton floods would know this place as the9 ocean of brown water with a statue of a bull sticking out of it. If you go there now, you will see construction crews hard at work building a massive bridge metres above the existing road and that work will continue until there is a section of highway bridged right across the Yeppen flood plain.

No longer will Rockhampton and the northern half of Queensland be cut off for weeks when the Fitzroy breaks its banks. No longer will workers be cut off from their jobs and businesses cut off from their customers and suppliers. This has caused massive disruption and distress at an individual and regional level and I am so pleased that this government has been dedicated to helping me find and fund a solution for the communities of Central Queensland.

These are just some of the biggest projects that come to mind since 2007. What they have in common with all of the initiatives and programs I have not mentioned is that they always involved a partnership between community, the government and me. Whether it was Mackay Sugar, headspace, Lakes Creek meatworks or the Road Accident Awareness Group, I always loved being brought in to understand an issue or idea, advise on the best way forward and then take up the advocacy to get a project across the line.

I want to take the opportunity here to thank the Prime Minister, my ministerial colleagues and their staff who always without exception made the time, took my calls, heard me out and helped me to do the best I could for my electorate.

During my time in the parliament I served my electorate, but I campaigned for the Australian Labor Party. In my first speech I described how it was the Labor government of Gough Whitlam that shaped my aspirations and the Labor government of Hawke and Keating that gave me opportunity. Other members have spoken about how humbling it is to rise in here for the first time and I remember that very clearly.

What I also found humbling was going back to read my first speech. I was humbled by the strength of my conviction powered by a belief in Labor's cause. It was a belief that a Labor government would always make Australia a better place for families like the one I grew up in and for regions like the one I represent. Believe me there is nothing humble about the pride I feel in what this Labor government has achieved and continues to strive for.

These achievements include keeping the people of Central Queensland in work and making sure the doors of local businesses stayed open during the global financial crisis; the apology to the stolen generation giving us the opportunity for genuine and meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous people; having the courage to stand up to the tobacco companies and become the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes; increasing the number of people from regional Australia going to university, including their own local universities that have been supported by this government's investments in new world-class facilities; paid parental leave giving families those precious first months with their babies; establishing the world's biggest network of marine parks; putting a price on carbon so our children are not stuck with an old economy while the rest of the world moves on; finding a way to keep the Murray Darling Basin productive while protecting its environmental values; giving people with disability and their families and carers the hope of a decent, dignified and fulfilling life; taking our place in the world as a member and now host of the G20 and sitting on the United Nations Security Council; developing a deeper understanding of what the future holds for us and embracing the challenges and opportunities of the Asian century; building on those great Labor reforms of the past with measures to strengthen superannuation and broaden Medicare. And there is, of course, our vision for a school education system that is funded to meet the needs of every child in every school so our Australian students reach their full potential and are able to match the best in the world. It is a worthy list of achievements and a powerful argument why this Labor government deserves the chance to do more.

Back in 1998 I believed in what a Labor government could do—now I know.

I thank my colleagues who have shared this incredible journey with me, and I thank you, Julia, for your support as a friend and as a leader who has always inspired me with the force of your commitment to fairness and opportunity, and your determination to prevail in the name of those values.

I heard the advice last week of two wise women whom I greatly admire, Sharon Grierson and Nicola Roxon, to put my thank yous and tributes to those I love at the start. I have not taken that advice, so I have no-one else but myself to blame if it all falls apart. I want to say thank you to my staff, represented in the gallery here today by Sarah Byrne. I have had so many good people work in my office in the past 15 years. They have been dedicated to serving the people of Capricornia and loyal to the cause of the Labor Party. Together we won five elections for Labor, and each victory was as much theirs as it was mine. My current staff—Soe, Sarah and Katelyn—are a fantastic team. It is great to be surrounded by young people who are so bright and motivated and always supportive.

Then of course there is Barry Large—the one and only—

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