Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak to the address-in-reply. It is a great honour to be re-elected as the federal member for La Trobe. I first acknowledge the former member for La Trobe, Laura Smyth, and wish her all the best for the future. I am also sad to see that the former member for Indi, Sophie Mirabella, will not be returning to parliament. This is a great shame. And Senator Helen Kroger's term will conclude next year. That is another great shame. I must thank the people of La Trobe for their trust and for allowing me to be their voice in parliament. I will devote myself to ensuring the place we call home is an even greater place to live. For those who voted for me, I thank you for the honour of being your representative. I will work hard to prove that your faith in me is well founded. For those who chose otherwise, I will work hard to win your favour and will continue to represent you to the best of my ability.

I was first elected back in 2004 into a strong Howard government. John Howard was truly a great Prime Minister. Under Howard and Treasurer, Peter Costello, the coalition paid back $96 billion of Labor's debt. In La Trobe, back in 2004, in our campaign we promised to do many things that we delivered on, one of which was to build the Bryn Mawr Bridge in Beaconsfield for $10 million. At the same time, the Labor Party committed $25 million for the bridge. Under the Howard government, we built the bridge for $8 million. Labor was prepared to waste $17 million. We also promised $800,000 to Fernley House for palliative care. This meant that family members and patients who were already dealing with a very difficult, tragic situation no longer had to travel either to Box Hill or Caulfield to receive palliative that they so desperately needed. They could now simply go to Fernley House in their own electorate of La Trobe.

We engaged with the community and delivered lights to the Boronia Football Club and upgrades to the Basin football and cricket clubs, and Upwey RSL received $220,000 under our leadership. Essential traffic lights were installed in Officer, which allowed parents to safely drop their children to school. The Shangri La Wildlife Shelter received funding for the first time ever from a council, or from a state or federal government. Well done to Rod and Tina for their great work in rescuing, and nursing back to health, injured wildlife. Burnja Performing Arts Centre in Upwey received $2.5 million and Gemco Performing Arts Centre in Emerald received $450,000.

The Howard government's Investing in Our Schools program saw local schools receive up to $150,000 each. I recall Mount Dandenong Primary School had brand-new playground equipment installed, and Berwick Lodge Primary School wanted a radio station, so they got a radio station. The school communities determined what they wanted—because this is how we service them best—and they got what they wanted. In 2006, I am very proud to say that after discussions with the Ferny Creek Scouts about the need for water tanks, new gutters and associated plumbing for scout halls, I took the idea to Prime Minister John Howard. He agreed with our views, and not only did we ensure that the Ferny Creek Scout Hall got the water tanks but also we made sure that every scout hall in Australia would receive the same, and committed $17 million to the project.

What is interesting to note about all these local promises and commitments is that there were no allegations of waste and mismanagement of taxpayers dollars associated with them. In 2007 former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd walked into a $20 billion surplus. But through his actions, together with those of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, we now have a $400 billion black hole, and we borrow over $80 million per day with an annual interest bill of $10 billion. It was a great contest between Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Gillard for who could come up with the dumbest policy ideas and waste the most money. But there was no clear winner, so the Labor Party as a whole must get the award—sadly at the Australian people's expense.

Let us look at a snapshot of some of Labor's schemes which were developed when it was last in government. There was cash for clunkers. There was GroceryWatch, which cost $7 million. There was FuelWatch, which cost $20 million. There was the set-top box program, which cost $67 million. There was the carbon tax advertising, which cost $69 million. In Senate estimates, we found out that $100,000 had been spent on building a fake kitchen—what a waste of money! There was the immigration budget blow-out of $10 million, yet 50,000 people arrived on our shores illegally during the last Labor government. There was the pink batts—or home insulation—scheme, which cost $2.4 billion. With the pink batts scheme there was widespread rorting of the system, 224 house fires and—very tragically—four deaths. In fact, Jackie and Alex Quieretem from Berwick contacted me with their concern that the installation they had installed in their house was a fire danger. Sure enough, they were right: Jackie and Alex's house was one of 250,000 houses in Australia which were deemed unsafe and had to be rendered safe. What a waste of taxpayers money it all was.

But that is all in the past, thankfully. Let us look to the future under an Abbott government. Locally, the commitments we made in various forms made during the election campaign span the electorate of La Trobe. The Abbott government committed $3 million to the reduction of bushfire fuel and to weed eradication—which is very important to people in my electorate—in the Dandenong Ranges. For this commitment I must thank my friend the Hon. Greg Hunt, as we only were able to make the commitment through his personal intervention. I find it amazing that I made announcements of commitments during the 2007 and 2010 campaigns and that they were never matched by Labor or supported by the Greens. Only a Liberal government will truly look after the Dandenong Ranges.

The Abbott government has committed $1 million towards Windermere to complete the purpose-built Toomah Centre, which will offer care and support services for vulnerable families and individuals. I acknowledge the great work of the CEO of Windermere, Dr Lynette Buoy, and her amazing staff and board. The Abbott government has committed $1.5 million to complete a school for the blind and vision-impaired at the Berwick Campus of Monash University. I must congratulate Alan Lachman, who has worked tirelessly with his wife, Maria Franca, and his three daughters, Sabrina, Alessandra, and Francesca. At the moment there is no school like this in Victoria, and I strongly support the Insight Education Centre for the Blind and Vision Impaired in all the work they do. I again must thank The Hon. Greg Hunt, as well as the Hon. Senator Mitch Fifield, for their great support in ensuring that we could make this commitment to the school for the blind and vision-impaired. It was made the Thursday before the election, so there was no media; it was just one of those things which we believed that, as Liberal members, we should deliver as a promise.

The Abbott government has committed $1.5 million dollars to Emerald Primary School so that it can build a new basketball facility and home ground for the Emerald Lakers. I thank the principal of Emerald Primary School, Mark Carver, the former president of the Emerald Lakers, Rob Fredericks, and the Emerald Primary School community. Working with them has been a pleasure, and I look forward to creating a better educational environment for our children. The government has committed $50,000 to the Hilltop Recreation Association in Olinda to install adequate lighting. This will not only help the local sporting clubs at the Olinda Reserve but also bring light to the Melbourne Oxfam trail walks at the checkpoints. I thank the Hilltop Recreation Association—and, in particular, I thank Stephen Scott, who is otherwise known as Sid. I have worked closely with Sid since the inception of the Hilltop Recreation Association in 2007. Sid and I have a long association which goes back even to playing junior football together. Sid was a very good footballer. Sadly, I was not!

The coalition has committed $250,000 to the South Belgrave community project. This funding commitment means that the construction of new facilities for the South Belgrave Football Club and other community groups is now within reach. I say well done to Ian Bakens, who worked with me to secure this funding. The government has committed $500,000 to the building of a new pavilion in Emerald's Chandler Reserve. I thank the Emerald Football Club, Emerald Netball Club, Emerald Cricket Club and Avonsleigh Tennis Club. Local sporting clubs are often pillars of our community, and I am proud to be a part of a team which supports our local sporting institutions. I must also thank Bill and Robyn Kuys, who encouraged me to run again for parliament—especially when they realised that the Labor government did not support their club.

The Abbott government has committed $500,000 to the Upwey-Tecoma Community and Sporting Recreational Hub. I acknowledge the great work of Andrew Petterson, who worked with me behind the scenes to secure the funding needed for this rundown facility to be restored to a fully-functioning facility which can also serve as a meeting point during natural disasters. The government has also committed $450,000 to the eradication of wandering trad, a noxious weed which is infesting the 50 kilometres of creeks in the hills of my electorate and is a significant threat to the biodiversity of native plants in the area. Thanks again must go to the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, who, back in 2007, as environment minister, committed funding to eradicate wandering trad, only to have the funding overturned by the new Rudd government. I must thank the Hon. Greg Hunt, who since 2008 has been working with me on the project to eradicate wandering trad. We made commitments in the 2010 and 2013 campaigns. We will have the CSIRO look at undertaking research to see if we can eradicate the wandering trad for good through environmental control. The Labor Party and Greens do a lot of talking about the environment and the electorate of La Trobe, but only the coalition has made election commitments—and we deliver on our promises.

However, my number one issues for La Trobe are the prevention of youth suicide and increasing the awareness of mental health issues. At a national level, the most recent data available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is from 2011. In total during 2011, 2,273 people tragically took their own lives. In this figure there were 483 people from Victoria. Between the ages of 15 to 24, there were 62 young people who are, heartbreakingly, no longer with us. Way too many young people have taken their lives and are no longer with us. As far as I am concerned, the only number that is acceptable is zero. We will never understand the pain and suffering their families go through, the toll it takes on fellow students at school and the emotional toll on the entire community. When I was a detective at Boronia and Knox criminal investigation branches, we had one of the highest levels of attendance at suicides. I have completely lost count of how many suicides I investigated, how many suicide notes I read and how many families I comforted during those years as a detective.

I recently was at a fundraiser for beyondblue, organised by the Berwick Rotary Club—a fantastic event. There, Jeff Kennett, the former Premier of Victoria and now CEO of beyondblue, described suicide as having an excess of evil, depression, drugs and alcohol around you. The only question really is: which one comes first? The way I see it, my role in battling youth suicide and mental illness is to bring more counselling services to La Trobe and more activities for young people to escape the awful curse of depression, whether it be through sports or the arts. There need to be more opportunities to receive help when it is wanted and, more importantly, when it is needed. There is already some promise in this area with the headspace unit which will be opening next year in either Narre Warren or Berwick. I look forward to working with headspace to offer the youth in our area a wide range of health and wellbeing support, including mental health, general health, and help with alcohol and the curse of drugs. I also believe there is a strong need for a headspace centre to cater for young people in the Dandenong Ranges. I congratulate the Shire of Yarra Ranges for pushing this. This morning we had a very constructive meeting with the health minister, my friend the Hon. Peter Dutton.

There is a lot of work to do. I must say that all involved in government and council from all political parties and backgrounds are working together, and I will continue to do so in La Trobe, in Victoria, and in Australia, because this is not an issue that can be ignored or politicised; we need to sit up and take action on this.

Prior to my forced exit from parliament, I had the great pleasure of being the shadow parliamentary secretary for policing and law enforcement. I was appointed in 2008 by the then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull as shadow parliamentary secretary for justice and public security, which under Tony Abbott's leadership changed to policing and law enforcement. As part of my role I developed, for the coalition, the law enforcement policy on gangs in the 2010 election campaign. The policy I developed focused on establishing a $33 million national violent gangs database and $95 million for an additional 200 investigators to be seconded from the AFP and state and territory police to the Australian Crime Commission to establish a national violent gangs squad. Sadly, the Labor Party has ripped the heart out of the Australian Crime Commission and they have basically stopped paying the bills for the seconded detectives, and now it is just an intelligence-gathering mechanism. It is very sad to see. The policy was designed to target all violent gangs, from youth gangs to street gangs, and to the ever-growing outlaw motorcycle gangs, as well as gangs involved in street shootings.

I am very proud to see, on the election of the Abbott government, the first major law enforcement announcement. The Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, in conjunction with the states, announced $64 million towards creating a national antigangs taskforce, working through the Australian Crime Commission. The next focus on gangs must be to establish a national violent gangs database. This is the missing piece of the law enforcement puzzle when it comes to outlaw motorcycle gangs and all gangs, together with stronger unexplained wealth legislation. Both are very important tools to take on gangs.

It is also necessary to thank all the people who helped me during the election campaign. It was truly a great team effort. I cannot thank all my volunteers enough. Your hard work was invaluable and I cannot be more grateful for it. First of all, I would like to thank my campaign manager, Garry Runge, who is here with us today and is now my chief-of-staff. Thank you, Garry. I apologise to his wife, Sue, for dragging Garry through hell. My FEC chair, David Holmes, has always been a very great and loyal supporter. Branch members and supporters include Carol Porter, Joy Bishop, Pauline Heatherton, Brian Heatherton, Kaye Moreland, Mick Moreland, Andrew McNabb, Julie Hughes, Eric Richmond, Hubert Novak, Ken and Carmen Dainton, Janet Halsall, Atia Sadichzi, Suzzanah, Steve Hartney, Todd Coleman, Trevor Withers, Councillor Amanda Stapleton and Councillor Sam Aziz.

I must thank the Liberal Party state director, Damien Mantach. You did a fantastic job. I thank you and the deputy director, Andrew Cox, and also Simon Frost for all your great support through the campaign. I also thank state president Tony Snell, the committee, all the Liberal supporters and the staff at 104. You did a truly amazing job.

I must also thank the Hon. Senator Mitch Fifield, the patron senator for La Trobe. Mitch did a fantastic job. I also thank Senator Michael Ronaldson, Senator Helen Kroger, the Hon. Greg Hunt, the Hon. Christopher Pyne—thank you so much, Christopher—the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Josh Frydenberg and the state member for Gembrook, Brad Battin. I also had very strong support from the Young Liberals and must thank Evan Mullholland and the Melbourne University Liberal Clubs' Michael Sabljak for all your great support. You guys are fantastic.

After losing the seat of La Trobe in 2010, I was invited back to Victoria Police and became a detective senior sergeant. I had previously worked for Victoria Police for 18 years. I would like to thank Inspector Mike Glinski, Michelle Wells and Crime Command for their support. Closer to home, I must thank my parents, Bob and Jan, for all their support. It is always tough on the family members of MPs as they often feel the heat of our political views and the way our parties make decisions.

The highlight of the campaign for many local residents was not the local political battle between Liberal and Labor. The media was very focused on our campaign Mascot, Mr Black, the Great Dane. Mr Black, thank you very much. You will be rewarded with your favourite treat: a pig's ear. Last, but definitely not least, thank you to my beautiful and lovely wife, Judy. She is up in the gallery today. Judy, you have been an absolutely fantastic supporter, coming to all the functions and putting up with me. I adore you and thank you for your support. I am pleased to announce to the House that we are expecting our first child in April next year.

In closing, it is again a great honour to serve the people of La Trobe. Thank you so much.

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