Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to acknowledge in the parliament a dear friend and a great man in Maha Sinnathamby, or the 'Chairman', as he is known to many. He is also known as the visionary behind the multi-award-winning, master-planned city, Greater Springfield. In 1992, Maha and his business partner, Bob Sharpless, purchased an unwanted 7,000 acre parcel of land for $7.2 million. It had no access, no transport and, to most people, no hope—to most people, but not to Maha. He said this about the land:

I saw a beautiful parcel of land with wide open spaces, children going to school, couples taking romantic walks in the park, families building the dream home and busy professionals taking the train to work. It was so clear my mind. The next step was to take what was in my mind and make it into a reality.

Twenty-two years and more than $12 billion later, Greater Springfield—comprised of Springfield, Springfield Lakes, Springfield Central, Augustine Heights and Brookwater—has emerged as one of the most incredible property developments ever achieved in Australia. It is not only home to my family but it is also home to 30,000 other people; the Brookwater Golf and Country Club; the state headquarters of General Electric; the beautiful, brand-new Mater private hospital; a new state-of-the-art police station; the University of Southern Queensland; the Orion shopping centre, now going through its second stage; two train stations, which are absolutely 21st-century; 10 schools, both public and private; 11 childcare centres; the Polaris Data Centre; the Robelle Domain parklands; the new water park; dozens of restaurants; and some great coffee to rival Melbourne's. We have great people, and we have created jobs and opportunity—all this because of one man's vision. Greater Springfield was recently awarded the World's Best Master Planned Community by the International Real Estate Federation and the UDIA's national award for the best master-planned development.

Greater Springfield is now that beautiful community with wide open spaces, children going to school, couples taking romantic walks around the lakes, families building dream homes and busy professionals taking the train to work. In recognition of Maha's great leadership, last week, in Kuala Lumpur, he was presented the BrandLaureate Great Entrepreneur Brand ICON Leadership Award 2015. Maha now joins the ranks of people like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Nelson Mandela and Hillary Clinton, and deservedly so.

This wonderful recognition from the desk of the President, Dr KK Johan, on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Brands Foundation, recognises and confers on Maha Sinnathamby the BrandLaureate Great Entrepreneur Brand ICON Leadership Award. It talks about Maha's contribution and refers to a range of things. In particular, it says that to become a Brand ICON you have to be an 'eminent leader in your country.' You have to be a 'visionary of high esteem, respected and admired'. Maha is all of those things. The person has to have 'contributed to the development of the nation and the economy with their innovative thoughts', and Maha certainly is a person that did not just talk the talk but walked the walk. He is a doer. He has never accepted 'no' as an answer, because he always believed in his dream. It is a person who has 'strong conviction, values and principles' and follows those principles in their life—a person of 'great resilience and tenacity.' It talks about the incredible and spectacular work that they have done, and particularly talks about 'passion and commitment to your cause of creating a lasting legacy.' Everybody who knows Maha Sinnathamby knows that all of this is exactly what he has done. He has had great leadership. It states that there is 'passion and dedication … second to none', and that is also very true.

All great projects, though, are not without great challenges. These things do not come easy. In those 22 years, there have been many trials and tribulations. Most people would have given up; most people would not have had the vision. Most people would have just made their money, carved up the blocks of land, retired and had an easy and comfortable life, but at a young age—I think it starts with a 7 in front of it—Maha still continues to work most days and believes in his vision.

I would like to finish by saying this: Maha and his family—Yoga and all of his children—and everyone associated with them are great people. They have contributed a lot to our community. Maha has done an incredible job. He has not just built infrastructure, bricks and mortar but built a community. It is a real thing. It is where I live, it is my home and it is home to so many other people. But perhaps the best way to sum up Maha's principles in life would be to refer to Mahatma Gandhi from Young India in 1925: you cannot have 'politics without principle', 'wealth without work', 'pleasure without conscience', 'knowledge without character', 'science without humanity' or 'worship without sacrifice'. That is the best way to recognise Maha Sinnathamby for his great contribution to our nation and to the Greater Springfield project.

See this speech in context