Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like many of my colleagues on both sides of the House, I'd like to start by acknowledging the extreme gratitude and honour I feel to once again be elected to this place and to once again represent the people of Oxley in the community that I proudly call home. I'm grateful to the 95,043 people who voted at either prepoll, by post or on election day and the further 30,000 people who live in our community, be they new arrivals to our great country or permanent residents.

Today I recommit my pledge to serve the people of Oxley, to be your representative in the federal parliament and to do my very best to represent you and your families to the best of my ability. But whether you voted for me or not doesn't matter. It's what is great about our democracy. As soon as the hard campaigning was over and the people had their say back on 18 May, all 151 members and all 76 senators got on with the job of making Australia the best it can be for its people and our future.

But, whilst it is indeed the voters who decide who represents them, it is the team behind each of the election candidates who deserve a great deal of thanks, and I'm lucky to have one of the best teams anywhere in Australia, who have been with me through thick and thin, some for more than a decade, when I was first elected as a representative of the Richlands Ward in the Brisbane City Council, now proudly represented by local councillor Charles Strunk.

I want to make special mention of some of the amazing people who have helped me and supported me on this journey. Thanks go to my FEC chairman and former councillor Les Bryant, my magnificent campaign director Mrs Margie Nightingale and some of the hardest working volunteers you will ever meet: Cathy Bidgood, Nayda Hernandez, Phuong Nguyen, Tuan Le, Mai Linh Do, Penelope Webster, Daniel Robinson, Rachel Hoppe, Nino Lilac, Lucy Bordin, Barry MacIntosh, Don Fraser, Bruce Leslie, Tony Cook, Neil and Judy Bennett, Fran Bell, Rose Newell, and our amazing local state MPs in the division of Oxley. I proudly serve alongside five state MPs, magnificent members of the Palaszczuk government Jess Pugh, the member for Mount Ommaney; Mrs Charis Mullen, the hardworking and capable member for Jordan; Minister Leeanne Enoch, the member for Algester; Jo-Ann Miller, the member for Bundamba; and, of course, my great friend and supporter the Premier of Queensland, Anastacia Palaszczuk, the state member for Inala. To all of our local branches, my staff in my electorate office—Karen Bell, Jen, Ros, Michele, Brent, Riley, Coen and Michael—they all played crucial roles in supporting me not just during the election campaign but of course with the work that I do in serving the people of Oxley. I'm very privileged to be supported by a number of unions in the state of Queensland. In particular, I want to acknowledge my own union, the Australian Workers Union, led by state secretary Steve Baker; the SDA; Gary O'Halloran from the Plumbers Union; Peter Biagini from the TWU; Neil Henderson from the ASU; and local resident and supporter Bill Marklew from the CPSU.

Everyone who comes to this place relies on a team, through their family, through their support networks and, of course, through the communities that they represent. I thank each and every one of those members of my community who have supported me to enable the work that I do for the people of Oxley.

The work that they do in enabling me to serve here is of course worth fighting for. The Australian Labor Party is Australia's oldest political party. Our passion for fairness at work, health care for everyone and access to quality education, no matter a person's circumstances, add up to a firm belief that we should all have the same opportunities in life. These are the values that underpin everything we do. In the Labor Party we believe that government has a responsibility to keep the nation safe, to invest in all our people's potential, to reverse disadvantage and to care for the most vulnerable among us. Our greatest achievements have always come from helping this great country to fulfil its potential whilst at the same time ensuring we leave no-one behind.

Once upon a time in this country when you got sick you almost went broke, until Labor, and one of my predecessors as member for Oxley, the great Bill Hayden, created Medicare. There was a time when people worked hard all their lives only to retire poor, until Labor created universal superannuation, which was opposed by those opposite. Not so long ago, there was a time when hundreds of thousands of Australians with disability and their carers had to scrape to get by, until Labor built the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We stand for workers finding secure jobs in safe workplaces for decent pay. On that note I'd like to acknowledge in particular the Australian mining and resources industry. For more than 100 years, the mining and resources sector has been the backbone of the Australian economy and workforce, powering our nation into the 21st century and, with it, one of the best standards of living of anywhere in the world. Whilst there have been many scaremongering calls to see the end of mining coming from some corners in our community, I for one remain buoyed and optimistic about the role mining and resources have played in the story of Australia, particularly in Queensland, to date and will play into the future.

Over 300,000 Queensland jobs are supported by resources. In 2017-18 alone, mining and resources contributed $5.2 billion in wages for Queensland workers, $4.3 billion in royalties to pay for our schools, hospitals and roads and a total of $69.9 billion to the Queensland economy. That's $1 in every $5 of the Queensland economy and one in eight jobs provided thanks to mining and resources. It's not hard to see why mining is so important to Queensland. On top of this, the mining and resources sector has a supply chain of over 14,000 Queensland businesses and assists with more than 1,200 community organisations.

Last year Australian resource exports set a new record of $248 billion, which also included a record $66 billion in exports of coal, making it Australia's most valuable single export. Australia has also recently become the world's single largest gas exporter, ahead of Qatar, with earnings expected to increase by more than 60 per cent, from $31 billion in 2017-18 to $50 billion in 2018-19.

Because the demand for the critical commodities of the future is booming, Australian mining is well placed to take advantage. We are in the top five holders of 14 out of the 35 of these critical commodities that will power the economies of the future. We produce 10 of the 16 commodities needed for the manufacture of solar panels. We hold the largest reserves of lithium, and we mine every commodity required to build smartphones and the battery and storage technology of the future. These numbers prove the worth that mining and resources have to the Australian economy and to the Australian people. Without them, we would not be able to build the roads and bridges we drive on. We would not be able to make the important investments in health and education and would not be able to employ the 1.1 million Australians who have a job in the mining, equipment, technological and services sectors.

But we must not take these figures for granted. We must ensure that Canberra and governments of all persuasions back our resources sector and regional communities to support the economy, support jobs and support our councils that are doing it tough.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:20 to 12 : 32

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