Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

It's really good to be able to rise today to speak on the address-in-reply. It was very humbling to have been returned as the member for Petrie for the third time. I appreciate the people putting their faith in me at the 2019 election as their choice as the best candidate to represent the Moreton Bay and Brisbane regions within the Petrie electorate.

The region isn't just my home and the place in which my wife and I have decided to bring up our children; it's much more than that. It's the memories I have of growing up on the outskirts of the fast paced city of Brisbane. I grew up in Toolang Street and Talgai Street, Bracken Ridge. I have fond memories, including with my mate Ivan Astori, of playing street cricket together out the front of our house; racing go karts, as we called them, down Benaroon Street in Bracken Ridge—it was nicknamed 'the killer hill' because, as a child, it was so steep—and exploring the creek down near the Bracken Ridge Tavern, which now has a housing estate, Springer Hill. We used to run around there exploring the creek. I got a bad cut on my foot from running around there as a 12-year-old, and you can still see the scar. I learnt judo at the Bracken Ridge Scout Hall. I remember walking through McPherson Park with Ivan when I was seven, and we went past the scout hall. We started judo together, and I went on to do judo for 25 years. Judo taught me a lot of great things and I met a lot of great mates there growing up in Bracken Ridge and learning judo. I spent weekends by the water, cherishing special moments with my father when we'd go out fishing and crabbing in the bay off Clontarf and Scarborough in dad's tinny, and we'd go camping up Saltwater Creek and mud-crabbing before it became a green zone. There was an old horse farm up there on Mango Hill. Dad and I would go camping up there for the whole weekend. I'd come back covered in mosquito and sand fly bites. They are great memories of growing up in the electorate that I represent. Now I'm making new memories with my own children down on the water, enjoying water sports and so forth.

We have great community spirit in the Petrie electorate. It's in suburbs in the Brisbane city council area like Fitzgibbon, Bald Hills, Aspley and Bridgeman Downs and in the more northerly parts of my electorate, up in Deception Bay and Burpengary East; North Lakes, of course, a very fast growing suburb; Mango Hill and Griffin; and, of course, all of the Redcliffe peninsula. That's to name just a few suburbs in Petrie. It's a very diverse electorate. I enjoy getting out and meeting the people.

It's in part thanks to the community spirit that I'm standing here again following the 2019 election. I pride myself on being a hardworking member and representative of the people. I like to represent them here, to bring their feedback and what they're telling me to this place. In order for me to achieve that goal, I have to acknowledge the work of my very dedicated team and passionate army of volunteers who make up Team Petrie, Help Luke Howarth or Help Our Liberal-National Party Team. They're the ones who stood beside me whilst I was campaigning, at prepoll volunteering hours, doorknocking, helping out in the office, making calls—everything that's involved with campaigning.

There are a few people I will name. I want to acknowledge my parents, Ron and Denise Howarth. I spoke about them in my first speech in this place. I'm very fortunate; they're wonderful parents. They helped me and my younger sister, Gemeah, a lot. My dad pretty well put up every sign site I had in the Petrie electorate. I think it took him weeks to do it along with Barry Keam, a Bracken Ridge local—who is actually in the parliament today. It's a shame he couldn't be up here to hear this speech, but he is in my office at the moment, I think. I want to thank Dad for everything that he's done for me and for the great financial education that many people in my electorate don't get from their fathers. My father taught me a great work ethic. Dad went to school till he was 10; he left school after year 5 and then started work, as you did back then. He went from job to job; ran his own businesses and was a good father to me; he taught me a lot. My mum was brilliant as well. She helped me a lot and really cared for me. I want to thank them.

There are so many people to thank. Of course there are my wife, Louise, and my three sons, who are always keen to help. I don't take their help for granted. I always say to them: 'I'm going to do the best I can. I'll take one term at a time.' They always encourage me and get out and help me. They're a brilliant family. Thanks to my sons and wife.

I want to thank Troy and Cathy from North Lakes; and Kerri-Anne Dooley in Redcliffe, who did a great job for me as well; Alyanne and David; Josh Robsen; Alan Brady; Jake Scott; Scott Lammi; Geoff Godfrey; Bill; Ron Bright; Rhona Scott; Alex Croft; Daniel Edmonds; Louise Nelson; Tracy Davis; Rae Frawley; and Kay Thomas as well as Kara Thomas, who did a fantastic job helping me all the time.

Thank you to my FDC team: Chris, Jasmine, Robert and Rodney. As you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker McVeigh, you need a great FDC. Thank you to my coordinators for different areas: Rae and Jeff, Ryan and Louise, Troy and Kathy, and Brendon and Doug.

I also want to thank my electorate office team, for which I am very fortunate: Sue Quinn, widely known as one of the hardest-working staff in this House; Sherilee McDougall; Zuzanna Kamusinski; Susanne Cloake; and Lisa Attwood. All of these people did a great job for me, and I want to thank them very much. It's impossible to name everyone—there are so many people who helped me—but I just wanted to acknowledge a few people that I thought of.

I want to thank everyone who donated to my campaign—who want to help. And you know why they donate? For no other reason than that they appreciate the values that we bring as a member but also as a party: lower taxes, smaller government, reward for effort, looking after the environment, respecting the family—those sort of things.

What was clear is the number of people who simply didn't want a Shorten Labor government at this last election. They really didn't want a higher-taxing agenda. People came out to me from all over the place—people who had never voted for the coalition before—and they said, 'I've always voted Labor, Luke, but I'm voting for you this time.' It was quite unique. I want to thank those people for putting their trust in me and I will continue to do my best. I never take people's trust for granted; I always work hard and take every election one by one. Thank you again to those people.

What I really enjoy about being an MP is getting out and meeting people. I love the campaigning. You meet so many different people when you are out doorknocking, talking to people on the phone or meeting people at coffee shops or the many mobile offices that I do. The new member for Lilley dropped into one of my mobile offices at Bald Hills, and it was good to meet her for the first time there. In saying that, I try to work with fellow federal MPs, state MPs or councillors regardless of their party to deliver more for the people of my electorate, because that's why we are here: to work for the people. And so I'll continue to do that as well.

As much as I would love to be in every single suburb speaking to every single constituent every day of the week, that's not always possible, so, when the people of Petrie elected me for a third time, I've always made the commitment to myself that I'd put them first. As a newly appointed Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services, I'm taking that role really seriously and trying to work in a bipartisan way to help people right around the country, but I can assure the people of Petrie that I'll be spending plenty of time in the electorate and also putting their needs as No. 1.

We have a fantastic electorate. When I was first elected, I thought: what's important to the people of Petrie? New jobseekers, I thought, needed skills to help them land work, so I started the Job Seeker Boot Camp. As a former small business owner—I had a small team of about 15 or 20 people—I got to know what employers look for when hiring, so I was able to start the Job Seeker Boot Camp that I run at least three times a year. I invite all the unemployed along, and I get employers with more than five people to say, 'Look, this is what we actually look for when hiring.' There are common themes there. It's often about attitude and making sure that you've got a great attitude. It's making sure, as well, that you are drug and alcohol free, which is really important. It's making sure that you care about the work that you're doing.

This Job Seeker Boot Camp has been extremely successful because there are people there who have applied for literally hundreds of jobs and never got a response from businesses, so it encourages them and gives them a bit of an understanding of what employers want. Did you know that most jobs are found in Australia through networking and word of mouth? I can bet that any MP in this place, if they're looking for an electoral officer, will often say to their team, 'Do you know anyone who would be good for this role?' It's the same in the workplace in the private sector. They go to other team members and say, 'Do you know anyone for this role?' So I speak to the jobseekers at the Job Seeker Boot Camp about networking and perhaps getting out and meeting new people.

Infrastructure and facilities are so incredibly important, not just for a healthy lifestyle, like sporting facilities, but so people can be productive when they're moving around the electorate. Encouraging children, when I am out as a federal MP, is important when I'm in schools, or even at kindergartens or high schools or unis, and encouraging youth who will leaving school that they can be their best. It's also important to encourage adults, despite their circumstances about where they are in life now, to move to the next point and not be dependent on government, not be dependent on government crumbs whether it's Newstart or whatever it is for the rest of their life, and to get out of the financial situation that they're in now. I think we need to do a better job with financial education. In many cases, if you're in the private sector, often the private sector will do checks and things, but in social housing state governments often put you in there for life. There are no checks. There are no inspections. There is no encouragement. They are just left there to fend for themselves.

Speaking as a federal MP about the Constitution and about civic education is important. The engagement of people is so important, getting people to engage with the work that we're trying to do as a government, or the work that councillors or state MPs are trying to do, so they understand how to participate and how to get more done locally.

I love meeting volunteers, whether it's volunteers who help in the environment or at arts or music festivals. In former parliaments here, I was the House chair of the Standing Committee on Communications and Arts. We did some great inquiries into the film and TV industry as well as the music industry. Events like Rocking 4 The Homeless in my electorate where people want to help people who are homeless, organisations like Lions who run the Recycle for Sight in my electorate and help internationally, and Rotary who are very involved with international exchange students, come to mind. It's the women's Zonta groups who, in particular, have run great campaigns about violence and that domestic violence is never acceptable. My father, Ron, always taught me, and I've taught my three sons: you don't hit women. It's that simple. You treat people well. It's a biblical principle as well, the old golden rule: treat other people as you want to be treated. I want to thank Zonta for the work that they do in their campaigns.

It's the Quota women, as well, who have been reading in schools. So many children don't have parents who read to them every night. Kids love it when the Quota women come in and just read a book to them—or their federal member comes in and reads to them!

There are plenty of Men's Sheds, whether at Bridgeman Downs, Clontarf, Redcliffe or Burpengary East, that do a great job. It's where men can connect with each other, just be mates and teach and mentor one another. There are churches. I have to say that churches do a great job in our community. They've had a bad reputation, some of them, in the past with royal commissions and so forth, but I look at the Catholic parish in Bracken Ridge and the work they do with refugees, and the Aspley parish and the work that Aspley Care does in helping people in financial need. Baptist churches do homeless and community support and youth work, and they help people grow in their spiritual faith and become better citizens. The Uniting Church at Redcliffe and the Citipointe Church at Clontarf—what amazing leadership they have! I've been there recently and I just see the joy that people have in going there. I want to thank that leadership for the work they do. Downpour Church is at North Lakes, and I met with the pastor out there. He's a good bloke—down-to-earth. They're helping youth in North Lakes. There is the Anglican Church in Redcliffe and also the Church of Christ in Zillmere. That is just out of my electorate, but I went down there. They do some good work as well. I want to thank them all for the work that they do.

There are other faiths, like the Bald Hills mosque in my electorate. I went there after the Christchurch attack. I met people on the way out and just shook hands with them and said g'day. I've been there a few times now, and they're good people. They're raising their families and running small businesses. Some are health professionals; one of the doctors who attends that mosque lives in Mango Hill along with his wife and daughters. He's a fantastic man. They became citizens the other night—all five of them, the whole family. I had the pleasure of being at their citizenship ceremony.

The Sikh faith community meets at Taigum, on the border with Bracken Ridge. I've been to their centre. There are plenty of ethnic groups in the electorate. We're all Australians, as we know, and these people have embraced Australian values; I've seen it at the citizenship ceremonies. Pilipinos and Indians have a big presence in my electorate, and there are also the Brisbane Chinese Association and the Brisbane Malayalee Association. And there are so many South Africans in North Lakes—great people!

I love the Pacific Islanders. When I was 21 I had the chance to spend three weeks in Samoa. When I went there, it was a real culture shock: everyone just slept in the same room, we were killing pigs and there were chickens on the bus. It was fantastic—really good. But now I've developed a taste for taro, and so I love to go to the Deception Bay Island Tastee shop and just have an island feed.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, in particular, have a large number of people in Deception Bay. I want to thank them for the work that they do and the contribution that they make to Australia. And I want to thank my good friend Ramone Close. I've got to know him and he's a great man; I met him through Peninsula Power. He and his partner, Jemar, are expecting their first child.

It's a real privilege to be the federal member; I never take it for granted. It was humbling to be re-elected for a third time. I could probably speak for a couple of hours about the material I've got here, but I don't have time and only have a couple of minutes to go. So I will wrap up by saying that my commitment to the electorate is that I will continue to work hard and do my best.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Proceedings suspended from 11 : 43 to 11 : 54

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