Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today heavy of heart to address the House for the final time, to reflect on my career, to give thanks to all who have helped me along the way and to say goodbye to colleagues, many of whom have become friends for life.

On Monday, 23 November 1998 I delivered my first speech to the House. At the time I was the member for Kalgoorlie and I felt it an honour to have been elected to represent the electorate in the 39th parliament, an honour I humbly accepted and a responsibility I did not take lightly. Here we are in the 43rd parliament and I remain humble that I represent an electorate in the federal parliament, although now my responsibility has moved to the seat of Durack. As the inaugural member for Durack following the 2010 election and the 2008 electoral redistribution of the federal seat of Kalgoorlie I represent the constituents of hundreds of towns and communities within the huge electorate of Durack—63 per cent, more than 1.6 million square kilometres, of the great state of Western Australia and a quarter of Australia's land mass. Durack is the powerhouse of the nation. We have great natural resources, we have pastoralists, we have horticulturists and farmers, fishers, manufacturing, service industries and retail. No other electorate in Australia is as large, as diverse or as financially beneficial to the nation.

I have for 15 years represented the largest electorate in Australia, first Kalgoorlie and now Durack. How times have changed in the past 15 years. I have seen prime ministers, ministers, Speakers of the House come and go but never have I seen such turmoil in a reigning government as now. In recent years, much to my embarrassment, I have seen the once highly regarded position of prime minister tarnished. I have seen the position of Speaker of this House tarnished. I have witnessed the demise of our international reputation as a low sovereign risk destination. I have seen our once strong border protection policies dismantled, giving way to thousands of economic opportunists arriving on our shores. A number of pastoralists have lost their livelihoods and others are still struggling to recover from the financial setback dealt to them with the abrupt halt to live exports. Vocal minority groups are now dictating government action. Political correctness has come to the fore over the past 15 years, much to my dismay. To quote Mark Twain:

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.

I am told that Santa no longer says 'Ho ho ho' for fear of offending prostitutes. Fairy penguins are now little penguins, for fear of offending homosexuals. We now have a chalkboard instead of a blackboard, for fear of offending the non-Caucasian, and children are no longer ankle biters, in case we upset dog lovers. Non-Caucasians can no longer call us 'whities' and people of another religion can no longer call us Islamophobic when we do not want burkas worn in banks. Hang on a minute! Of course they can. Do you see anything wrong with the picture? Minorities and the 'Speech Police' are taking over and we are letting it happen. Political correctness is not only undermining free speech, common sense and personal responsibility; it is prohibiting it. We must stop kowtowing to vocal minorities and stand up for the majority. We are a democracy—the greatest democracy in the world—and we must retain that greatness for our children and grandchildren. We are known internationally as lovable, hardworking, honest larrikins. Future generations, just like my generation, must be allowed to enjoy all that it is to be Australian. However, if we do not stop political correctness from weaving its insidious web into all aspects of our lives, who and what will be an Australian in the future?

I now turn to a more positive note. Something that retiring members often do is talk about their achievements. I have had a few. Some of them include $3 million seed funding for the creation of an intermodal hub freight in Kalgoorlie. At the time I was representing Kalgoorlie, I won the establishment of a Child Support Agency office in the Kalgoorlie electorate, which has 16 per cent of the adult population tied up with the Child Support Agency, the highest percentage of any federal electorate.

I secured $10 million for the Outback Way, a road that links Winton in Queensland through to Laverton in Western Australia. It is referred to as the diagonal route or the third route across Australia. I chaired the 'Outback Way' committee for some three years. I got $2.5 million under the Centenary of Federation fund for the prospectors and miners Hall of Fame and later, on two separate occasions, secured an additional $1 million to keep it operating. I got $63,000 for the Shire of Leonora Stamp Mill to construct a shelter over the mill to preserve it as a tourist attraction. I got $20,000-plus for the shire for properly equipping the Leonora general practice clinic. These were huge achievements that many smile about.

I got Giles on the weather map. The Central Australian weather data collecting centre did not have Giles on the weather map, because the ABC told me there was simply no room on the map of Western Australia to get Giles noted. Think about that!

I got letterboxes for Ninga Mia, an Aboriginal community in Kalgoorlie, because they did not previously have any letterboxes in the place. So we had Australia Post install letterboxes and feed them mail at the community gate.

Handguns for pastoralists is a huge issue in Western Australia and in the pastoral industry generally. I campaigned for years and now pastoralists may apply for a handgun licence. Mixed breed wild dogs, although we are getting some state government funding, remains a problem and it needs to be fixed. I do not know what we are going to do about that into the future, but I do know that we will not have a wool industry in remote areas of Western Australia unless we fix the problem.

I have been vocal in my opposition to alcohol bans and have voiced my opinion widely in relation to the banning of alcohol. It is just a bandaid solution. What we need is alcohol management, not the banning of alcohol.

We need changes to youth allowance. A lot of work has already been done. Much remains to be done in relation to creating a level playing field so that regional students can access city institutions just as readily as their city cousins can access those institutions. The capping at $150,000 for household income for the cut-out of youth allowance is an absolute nonsense.

Do you remember the Telstra $2.20 charge for paying of Telstra accounts. We had to knock that off and I contributed to that effort.

One major and satisfying achievement that my colleagues have reminded me over this most recent period was the creation of Friends of Mining and Resources here in the House. I believe that now, six years after the establishment of that body, my colleagues in city electorates have a much greater, better and fuller understanding and appreciation of what the mining industry does for our lives, when we come across products of the mining industry in every step of our lives and yet so many city populations would decry the fact that Australia is nothing more than a quarry. As somebody famously once said, 'The area of Australia's hotel car parks is in fact greater than the footprint of Australia's mines.'

One of the great problems we have these days, apart from both the carbon tax and the supertax on resources—and the coalition will remove them—is cane toads. I think people are a little tired of hearing me wax lyrical about the problem cane toads are creating right across Northern Australia. I thank Lee Scott-Virture, from Kununurra, for her efforts in creating the Kimberley Toad Busters and for the work she has put into that, having now recruited some 5,000 members to the Kimberley Toad Busters. We need to find funds, to come up with an effective biological or viral control of cane toads. It is a major problem. They are now right across into the Kimberley and many people are saying that it is a given that they are now part of the Australian environment. I do not accept that for a moment. At some point in time we have to put sufficient funding into research, to come up with an answer to get rid of them because they are destroying our native environment.

One thing yet to be done is the fixing of the livestock export problem. I was very active at the time when this government tried to hold Indonesia under siege. We have many bridges to build there and I am pleased to note that Julie Bishop, our shadow foreign affairs minister, is doing a lot of work to bring that relationship back together.

Some people in Western Australia are in fact talking about the West Australian Nationals' call for a federally funded Royalty for Regions program. Major campaigns are underway, in the hope they can drag themselves over to Canberra on that very platform. Even though all candidates need to hang their hat on some aspirational issue, it is worth pointing out that these candidates have apparently not done their homework.

First and foremost, the federal government does not collect royalties. Secondly, one of the great Howard government programs was the Regional Partnerships Program. The electorate of Kalgoorlie, which I held for four terms, saw huge improvements and multiple projects supported by that initiative, including: $150,000 to the shire for the Mother of the Goldfields project, enhancing the Coolgardie worksites and townscape; $1.3 million to the Kambalda community for recreational facilities, constructing a centralised multipurpose community recreation facility; $132,000 for the Boulder Promotion and Development Association to renovate the historical Palace Theatre to make it safe and more functional for community and youth programs; $5,500 to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cemetery Board's Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cemetery Heritage Trail project for the development of a self-guided walk trail through the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cemetery with an accompanying guidebook; $100,000 to the Eastern Goldfields YWCA to assist the Eastern Goldfields YWCA to complete works on an existing room within the Y Centre in Kalgoorlie and develop it into a youth-friendly space; $500,000 to the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder for the Goldfields Oasis stage 2—the first publicly owned wave machine in the southern part of Australia—upgrading the Goldfields Oasis leisure and aquatic facility; $220,000 to the shire for establishing the Great Beyond—Australia's inland explorer's centre; and the list goes on. This highlights the fact that Regional Partnerships, that wonderful Howard government scheme, has done a great deal of work—appropriate work—in regional Australia, and we do not need to fantasise about the creation of yet some other fund to get money out of Canberra and back into questionable causes in Western Australia.

However, we have much to do, and, as I leave this place, contributing to my heavy heart today is the knowledge that so much remains to be done. There is much talk today about closing the gap, and we know that Indigenous Australians are not enjoying the benefits of a mainstream Western society's standard of living. There needs to be a collective realisation that the major problem in closing the gap is the differential between the basic education enjoyed in mainstream society and Indigenous society. We have to do it. Education is the key, and, until such time as we collectively have the wit and wisdom to tie school attendance and welfare together, there will not be an underlining of the imperative of school attendance.

It was a very sad day when I reflected upon the loss of the seat by Malcolm Brough because I calculated it took me about 10 years to convince Mal that we had to exercise some tough love, and, of course, having done that with the cooperation of this place, we then saw him lose his seat. We then lost government and saw so many of those fine initiatives reversed. That was a shame because, so long as we have that great gap between standards of living of our original Australians and our mainstream society, we have a lot more to do.

The financial support for rural students to attend tertiary education or the tertiary access allowance is, as I said before, an issue of equity. Until such time as you fully appreciate the very high wages and the very high cost of living in many parts of remote Australia, you will not appreciate that there is a genuine need for the removal of this $150,000 cap per household for the payment of youth allowance. It is a very expensive exercise to send a student from regional Australia to attend a city university.

The taxation zone rebates that have been paid since the end of the Second World War across this country need review. Under previous governments, the review process has been carried out about every decade. It is now nearly three decades since there was any substantial review of that program, and the light at the end of the tunnel, I suggest, is the coalition's proposal of the Northern Australia policy. I have faith that within that there will be the opportunity for the creation of taxation zones and, hand-in-hand with that, I sincerely hope that some genuine work is done to create a taxation zone rebate for remote area living that in some way reflects the high cost of remote area living.

One of the issues that I have been pressing since coming into this place is the idea of assisting explorers in this country to offset the high cost of exploration and allow them to attract investment in mineral exploration in this country. We have, at best, 17 years of mine life left for our existing mines. If something is not done in a very positive way to encourage investment in exploration, we are going to run out of a mining industry that gives us the wealth and standard of living that, as Australians, we enjoy today. Thank you, Macca, and I know you, personally, are working very hard for that.

We need to attract additional funding into remote Australia for the provision of aged-care facilities. The feedback I get from the rural providers is that we need at least a 40 per cent increase in rebates for remote area aged care before the commercial sector will even contemplate the situation.

Workers' compensation for older workers—that is, 65 plus—is another issue. We are encouraging people to stay in the employment field after age 65, but we have not addressed the issue of workers' compensation. If you ask any underground miner who turns 65 what he is going to do about workers' compensation after that, you get a very blank look.

We need, in my humble opinion, a sunset clause for Indigenous-specific departments in government. Until such time as we set a target for the solving of some of these problems in relation to Indigenous affairs, I do not believe we are going to install the motivation to do so, because there is the ongoing issue of employment. We need to stop the widespread rorting in the area of Aboriginal heritage surveys. Ask any miner that is trying to get access to country and they will tell you that one of the great hurdles is getting onto country because either they cannot identify anyone who is officially associated with the country or the associated costs are just too exorbitant to consider, and when it is brought to those people who could intervene in such a situation there is no proof because there is no written evidence about the deals that are being demanded. We need to streamline the environmental assessments process for the mining and resource industry and for development projects right across this country. The absolute litany of red and green tape that developers are forced to meet is unacceptable.

I have spoken about the cane toads and their involvement in destroying all our wildlife. On that topic, we need to do something in the future about the feral cats in this country. Famously, an ex-member of this place raised the issue of feral cats. There would be a few here from Western Australia especially who remember him. He was considered to be either very, very brave or very, very foolish—perhaps he was both. I do not believe it was during a valedictory speech; I think it was during his career and it was certainly no asset to that career, although he will never be forgotten. We need to take the issue seriously. Feral cats are destroying our fauna at a rate that no amount of land development or mining or tourist development would ever achieve, and yet we choose to turn a blind eye. It is truly not acceptable.

We have to increase the services to regional Australia, as I have said, and especially medical services and GPs. We must reinstate our livestock exports to Indonesia, our nearest neighbour, and we must do a great deal of work to re-establish mutual trust. In relation to the export of livestock, something that is important is that we need to re-educate Australia's city and urban children, we need to encourage curriculum input from rural-savvy educators, in order to introduce schoolchildren to the reality of food production, because presently they are far removed from that reality. We need to replace that natural condition of half a century ago that saw city families visit rural relations with an organised arrangement of country-city school student swaps. Anyone that takes up that cause in this place will do the livestock production industry a great favour, because until such time as city kids understand country situations we are going to lose the battle to have the public on our side when it comes to the continued, very necessary raising of livestock for live export. If we allow the current evolution alone to dictate outcomes, remembering that 87 per cent of the Australian population occupy three per cent of the landmass, we will see animal production outlawed. We need to develop the north of Australia. Northern Australia is capable of becoming not only the food bowl of Australia but also the food bowl for Asia. We need to further develop the tourist potential of Northern Australia.

I know by leaving the seat of Durack in Liberal safe hands many things left undone can be achieved. It is imperative to the nation that Durack is not left floundering in the great halls of this place with no voice. It is not possible to further entrench Durack as the powerhouse of the nation without the backing of a party room. It is vital for the economy of Australia that Durack remains a Liberal seat.

Now I take this opportunity to thank those who helped me along the way. Great leaders like John Howard; a joy to work with Dr Brendan Nelson; Malcolm Turnbull; and now the next great leader of Australian politics as Prime Minister, I sincerely hope, Tony Abbott. The help to me along the way from Julie Bishop; from Peter Costello; and believe it or not—and many will not know why I single him out—from Peter Reith. The first House mentor that I had was one Geoff Prosser, whom many of you will remember, and I thank him for the wisdom of his experience and for giving me the choice of which examples he set to follow. To all my colleagues, but especially Dr Mal Washer: the services you provide this House are exceptional. To Senator Alan Eggleston. To Don Randall, a fellow Western Australian. To Warren Entsch—where would we be without that lovable Entschie? Sometimes on the right track, many say! To Rowan Ramsey, a great neighbour. I mention here my first whip, Ronno—Senator Michael Ronaldson. To Greg Hunt, who has advised and helped me a great deal. To the indomitable Ian Macfarlane, who I do hope will successfully lead this nation with regard to resources and all of those things that are vital to the Australian economy. To Nola Marino, for her wonderful, wonderful, wonderful homemade soup, thank you. To Russell Broadbent and Bronnie Bishop, who could forget you.

I particularly thank the best state director, in my opinion, that Western Australia has ever had: Ben Morton. He possesses an extremely rare combination of integrity and compassion. It is very reassuring for people who have to move through the difficulties of electorate representation in the party to seek advice in confidence from time to time. It is a difficult situation and Ben does it better than anyone I have ever seen do it in Western Australia.

I need to thank my previous staff: Marilyn Barron, my PA who set the standard, so to speak; Jodie Richardson, who started with me the day before she turned 18 and spent the last six years with me as my PA—she possesses knowledge beyond her years and was a very, very effective PA; Linda Crook, who took over from Jodie and managed the election in 2010 and did an absolutely wonderful job, but having worked hard to win that election then lost her job because I moved to Geraldton—some would say proof positive that there is no justice; Samantha Dalton, hardworking Sam; Jackie Green, who is a wonderful front desk girl; Nikki Flemming;andPam Foulkes Taylor, who recently won a marathon, which pleased her a great deal.

I thank my current staff: De-Arne O'Neil—a lot to be said there but I do not have the time or the indulgence; Leanne Thurstun; Tammy Corby; Jackie Feeney; Lorraine Turner; and Louise Waldron. And my past campaign managers: Peter Durrant; my brother Murray Haase; and Linda Crook, an eternal tower of strength.

I thank the ever-obliging House staff. You tolerate us with good humour and good grace. We would fail without your services and your help. I thank the secretariat staff—competent and committed, assisting the numerous committees I have served on over the years. I thank the shire presidents and the CEOs from my 47 local government areas. I thank the vital hardworking Liberal lay party members who toil in an apparently thankless task, staffing the 100-plus polling booths over my last five elections. My thanks to the dozens of Liberal branch presidents who keep branches viable across a third of Australia in the case of the Kalgoorlie electorate, and now a quarter of Australia in the Durack electorate.

I especially thank Tony Proctor, who recruited members to the Broome branch to make it the most successful branch in Durack. My thanks toJames Falls for having the vision and honesty to give me the confidence to plan stepping down in the knowledge there was someone with the skills, experience, understanding and commitment prepared to stand to take my place, and for telling me about it two years in advance.

Having said that, I am grateful to Sir Robert Menzies, who had the integrity to bring together like-minded people to give birth to the Australian Liberal Party that would attract and recruit members who, having served in the parliament, are prepared to come back following defeat and have another go. A major concern I have had in planning to leave parliament was that the people of Durack have a great Liberal member serving them in a Liberal government with a real plan to get Australia back on track. I thank the fine people of the Durack electorate for placing their faith in me in the highly competitive 2010 election and for their ongoing support. I hope their future support for a competent, hardworking Liberal candidate will see their needs well-articulated in the party room, contributing to a Liberal government, providing hope, reward and opportunity for all Australians.

I pay special thanks to my children: my son Shane, who would have liked to have been here today, and his fiancee Kate; and my daughter Danielle, who is here today. They have both been so supportive during the election campaigns and through their hard work on polling days. I thank my sister Diane, her husband Ken Cunningham and my brother Murray Haase for their unwavering support and hard work.

I do not know where my life will take me from here on in—that is the beauty of life: its twists and turns, the mysteries and even the mistakes. But in the words of Errol Flynn:

I've had a hell of a lot of fun and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

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