Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As we look to wrap up for the parliamentary recess, I just wanted to take the opportunity to just reflect on the last two years. It's been almost two years since the class of 2016 was elected, and I thought this was an appropriate opportunity to look back on what we collectively and individually have achieved in those two years.

I want to start by saying that there's been no greater privilege in my life than being elected the federal member for Fisher. Apart from my marriage and the birth of my children, this is the pinnacle of my professional adult life. I believe there is no greater way that we can serve our fellow Australians than by being in this place. And I think sometimes we need to take a step back and look at how very fortunate we are to be here. Every day when I drive up to this place and see that flag on the flagpole—even after two years—I have to pinch myself to realise how incredibly fortunate we are to be able to represent our home electorates in this place. There's no greater honour.

My mission as the federal member for Fisher is to make Fisher the place to be for education, employment and retirement. It's a cradle-to-the-grave-type philosophy. The seat of Fisher on the Sunshine Coast is a remarkable place. We have many, many people, just a bit over 300,000 people living on the Sunshine Coast who call that place their home, and chances are they have come from somewhere else. In fact, very few people who live on the Sunshine Coast were born there, but such is its beauty that people want to live there, and why wouldn't they? As the federal member for Fisher, I see my role as an enabler to help people get to where they want to be. To me, politics is all about listening. Politics is a bit like salesmanship, actually. It's a bit like selling a house or a TV or a policy—it's the same sort of thing. Selling is not telling. Selling is all about listening to whoever your target audience is and finding out whatever it is that they want to buy—whatever is important to them. It's about listening to that and then trying to meet those demands and objectives. I think it's important that we all in this place do whatever we can. There's the old phrase 'the good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth, and we should use them in that ratio.'

Over the next few weeks, as we go into the so-called parliamentary recess, I will be conducting a lot of listening posts in my electorate. The first listening post will be on Saturday at the Kawana markets. I find those are a great opportunity, where people can just rock up and tell me what they think of either the government or me personally! But it's a terrific opportunity for me to hear what's important to people. In the following week, I will be conducting similar listening posts in Alexandra Headland, Sippy Downs, Little Mountain, Palmwoods, Montville, Kawana again, Mooloolaba and Bells Creek.

But it's more than just holding regular listening posts. I think it's important for us to be able to get the advice that we need. No matter how clever you might think you are, in this place no one person has all the wisdom to be able to do this job, and that's part of the reason why I've gathered a number of advisory councils. I have a seniors council, a business council, a commercial fishing council—Fisher has the largest commercial fishing fleet on the eastern seaboard of Australia; I bet you didn't know that, Mr Deputy Speaker Gee—a youth council, a tourism council and a defence industry council. All these things are vitally important, and they give me the opportunity to listen to stakeholders and listen to experts, and that helps me bring these ideas into this place and help drive policy.

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