Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This will lower vehicle operating costs, so you keep more money in your pocket to help pay for the friends that you don't have. It will deliver a more reliable road network for commuters and freight, which means less uncertainty on your drive to and from work. I fought hard to secure $50 million of funding for the Beaches Link tunnel, which will address congestion, improve safety and benefit those living on the northern beaches.

There is another piece of infrastructure that has regrettably gone largely ignored for too many years. That is the Wakehurst Parkway. At a time when the northern beaches has three of the 10 worst roads in Australia, when the federal government is funding the Beaches Link and when the federal government has been pleading with the state government to bring forward new road projects like Wakehurst Parkway, it is absolutely confounding that neither the local council nor the state government will put this forward. Despite it being made clear that the federal government can assist in paying for the widening of Wakehurst Parkway, for some unknown reason no formal request for funding has come forward. On Friday 16 October, four people were hurt in a head-on collision on Wakehurst Parkway at North Narrabeen. While that will sound confronting to this House, it isn't to my community, because it happens all the time. To provide you with some background: in 2017, $5 million was provided to the Northern Beaches Council to investigate options for upgrading the parkway. This study identified a number of options, which would also reduce the impact of flooding to the main road. However, when the New South Wales department of transport were asked what they were going to do, their response read: 'There are no current plans to widen Wakehurst Parkway from two to four lanes between Seaforth and North Narrabeen. Transport for NSW will continue to monitor the road and will update the community on any plans.'

During this year I've had the honour and privilege to represent one of the most beautiful parts of the world. I'm not just talking about the physical beauty of the beaches and the bush; I have the privilege of representing a community that believes in community, that knows we are all stronger together and that alone we can do much but together there is little we cannot do. As such I have the greatest number of rural fire brigades in Australia, which is only beaten by the number of surf lifesaving clubs I have in one electorate. There are two surf clubs that own their own clubhouses in Australia. Both are in Mackellar.

I know you should praise in general, but there are a number of people I want to specifically mention for being instrumental in building the place I call home. First I want to mention Peter Kinsey and Rob and Margaret Pearson of Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club. For 23 years this club has been trying to build a new clubhouse. Most of us would have learnt to give up in this time, but not Peter, Rob and Margaret and the team that they lead. This year they will provide well over 750 hours of patrols from a temporary clubhouse, but next year they will have the realisation of a vision 23 years in the making.

At the Whale Beach Surf Life Saving Club, Andrew Pearce and Kieran Gallagher have, over the last season, enjoyed the highs and lows of surf lifesaving and community groups. In doing so, they and the team they lead have shown commitment, dedication and humanity. When the bushfires came, they organised a fundraising dinner for the victims and volunteers, not because they had much but because they had been in the same position and knew what a big difference a little bit makes. As Andrew said that night, volunteering is the rent we pay for being on this planet. I've tried to come up with something better but could not, so I've been borrowing Andrew's line ever since and claiming it as my own!

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

Yes, most of my lines are borrowed! I'm waiting to borrow one of yours, Member for Lyons!

As the commander in charge of the Northern Beaches RFS, George Sheppard has shown me what leadership really is. It is not taking the credit and making long and eloquent speeches—his are far shorter and far more elegant than mine. It is the care and compassion you show those you lead and it is the trust and enthusiasm that you engender in those around you that make you a leader. It is, in short, what you give, not what you take. George, to you, your team and thousands who willingly put their lives on the line so that we may live ours, we thank you.

As I say, this is not even a sample of the people I should be mentioning. There is Dave Mason, Scott Penn, Daly Cherry-Evans, Des Hasler, Stephen Crawford, Brendan Paddison and Michael Ruthven, who keep the dream alive for so many sporting fans and whose work in the community goes unnoticed and untold. There is also Rod and Liz McQueen, who, with so many others, envisaged and enabled the Sargood centre, which has become a world-leading spinal injuries treatment centre. There is the Arcare group and John Knowles, who have built a five-star aged-care facility in Warriewood.

Then there are the entrepreneurs in our community. Marcus Blackmore and Toby Browne together represent two of the three most valuable and leading supplement companies in the world. There is Brett Crowther of Incat Crowther, who developed and designed $750 million worth of US battleships. Michael Jorigen is making the warehouses of the future of the world on the northern beaches. I particularly want to mention Lindsay Lyon of Ocean Guardian, who has designed and delivered non-invasive shark deterrents. Why the New South Wales government will not deploy one of his systems is simply beyond me. The environmental, economic and personal safety benefits are too huge to ignore. I will personally be getting one fitted to my surfboard in November when the latest system comes out. Finally, Safetyline Jalousie, whose team is headed by Leigh Rust, is designing, building and deploying the best louvres in the world—from cyclone shelters in the South Pacific to beachside homes on the northern beaches. These louvres are literally changing the world.

We can only change the world on the northern beaches because of the skills and talents of the people there and the opportunity they have to develop those skills. To our teachers go the laurels. Whether it is the STEM classes at Belrose Public School headed by Belinda Zorian, whose years 4, 5 and 6 developed an entire marine ecosystem out of robots; the year 6 students at Pittwater House, who ask more difficult questions than any journalist I've ever met; the incoming leaders at Forest High, whose hopes for the future have not been dimmed by the last 12 months but rather enhanced, for where some see problems they see worthy challenges that they have no doubt they will overcome; or the Covenant Christian School and the Northern Beaches Christian School, who students' zest and enthusiasm for the future is infectious—my community knows that the environment matters. They know that, whether it is PEP 11, live animal exports or a renewable-powered future, I share their views and I'm fighting for those views here in this place. No doubt the road is long but the journey is worth the destination.

In my first speech in this place I said that I believed Australia's best days are ahead of us because we have so much to hope for and so little to fear. While I must confess that my faith in this statement from time to time has wavered, it is renewed each time I realise that this parliament believes that we strive for individual freedom because no society has been fair without it. Replacing equality of opportunity with equality of outcome is the surest path to division and dystopia. Preserving the best of the past recognises those things we hold sacred and important and guarantees us a better future. More than anything, we know that compassion does not come from the hands of unelected bureaucrats, but from our friends, family and neighbours. These things I know that we know are worth fighting for and these are things that we will fight for every day.

Before I conclude I want to reflect on the member for Scullin's speech. There is a lot of mythology that goes on in this place around the car industry and Joe Hockey wanting them to leave when he was here. Nothing could be further from the truth. How do we know that is not true? Because the carmakers themselves announced under the Gillard government that they would not be renewing their investment in the Australian economy. Why? Because they could not get the productivity that they needed out of their sector. What were the biggest hold ups there? Was it workplace relations and the terms and conditions they had agreed? Was it the unions—the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union or the Australian Workers Union—who had something to do with this? We'll never know because, when Toyota went to sit down with them and talk about some productivity improvements they could make at these factories, the union refused to turn up. So they did the logical thing, and Nissan, Toyota, Ford and GM all decided to leave. They don't believe Australians should own housing. They believe Australians should be in social housing.

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